Methods and apparatus for reserving and/or utilizing resources in a CBRS network

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for managing spectrum in a CBRS network to provide services to user equipment devices located at a customer&#39;s premises. In various embodiments, the customer premises has no landline connection. An exemplary method embodiment includes the steps of: receiving, by the CBRS CPE base station, over the air from each of a plurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower base stations a reference signal; selecting, based on the strength of each of the received reference signals, a primary CBRS FWA tower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; establishing, by the CBRS CPE base station, a wireless communications link connection with the CBRS FWA tower base station selected as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station; reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for managingresources in a Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) network. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus forCBRS customer premise equipment (CPE) base stations to reserve andutilize resources, e.g., spectrum, from a plurality of different CBRSfixed wireless access tower base stations to provide services, e.g.,broadband services, to subscribers or users located within a customer'spremises served by the CBRS CPE base station and/or within the CBRS CPEbase station's coverage area. The present invention further relates tomethods and apparatus for providing services to customer premisesequipment devices without the need for a landline connection to thecustomer premise in which the customer premise equipment devices arelocated.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) network, Citizen CitizensBroadband Radio Service Devices serve as access points which can supportwireless communications with user equipment devices (UEs).

A CBRS network includes a plurality of CBSD devices. The CBSD devicesprovide wireless services to subscribers' user equipment devices.Spectrum is granted to each of the CBSDs using a centralized systemcalled the Spectrum Access System (SAS). The Spectrum Access System is acentral processing and database system that receives and processesspectrum grant requests. In the CBRS network, interference is managedthrough power management of CBSD devices by the Spectrum Access System(SAS). The SAS stores information regarding which CBSD uses how muchspectrum at which location in the CBRS network.

Many customer premises, e.g., homes do not have landline connections orlandline connections which can support broadband services. For example,in various geographical areas, e.g., rural areas of the country withsparse populations, it is not economical or practical to connectlandlines to all customer premises. In such areas, there is a need forproviding services, e.g., broadband services, to the customer premiseswhich do not have landline connections or do not have landlineconnections which can provide broadband services. While CBSD devices canprovide services to customer premise user equipment devices, e.g., userequipment devices, located in a home at a customer's premises, there isa lack of fixed wireless access base station resources, e.g., spectrumor bandwith, to adaquetely support all the devices operating at aparticular customer premises. When each customer premise user equipmentdevice only receives resources from a single CBSD which typically iscovering a large number of customer premises, e.g., 100 customerpremises, there is insufficient resources, spectrum for providingservices to each of the devices at that the 100 different customerpremises. While the CBSD which is servicing the various devices at acustomer premises may not have the available resources, e.g., spectrum,other CBSDs base stations may have available resources which are notbeing used.

From the above it should be understood that there is a need for newand/or improved methods and apparatus to reserve and utilize resources,e.g., spectrum, from a plurality of different base stations, e.g., CBSDdevices, to provide services, e.g., broadband services, to subscribersor users located within a customer premises equipment base station'scoverage area. There is a further need for new and/or improved methodsand apparatus for providing services to devices located at customerpremises without a landline connection or a landline connection capableof providing broadband services and/or where a landline is notpracticable or economical. Additionally, there is a need for new and/orimproved methods and apparatus for managing, e.g., reserving,allocating, and using, resources from a plurality of different fixedwireless base stations to provide services to a plurality of customerpremise equipment devices located at a customer's premises. There is afurther need for new and/or improved methods and apparatus for combiningspectrum allocation needs for a plurality of user devices located at acustomer premises or in a home served by a wireless communications link.There is also a need for new and/or improved methods and apparatus tosolve the technological problem of how to overcome congestion problemswhen a single base station does not have the capacity to provide therequested services for a plurality of devices within its coverage area.Moreover, there is a need for new and/or improved methods of providingadditional resources, e.g., bandwidth, to customer premises devices inaddition to the landline and current wireless methods available.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention includes novel methods and apparatus for managingresources, e.g., spectrum or bandwidth, in a Citizen Broadband RadioService (CBRS) network. The use of spectrum refers to frequency spectrumor bandwidth. The present invention includes a novel CBRS customerpremise equipment (CPE) base station and novel method of operating theCBRS customer premise equipment base station to reserve and utilizeresources, e.g., spectrum, from a plurality of different CBRS fixedwireless access tower base stations to provide services, e.g., broadbandservices, to subscribers or users located within a customer's premisesserved by the CBRS CPE base station and/or within the CBRS CPE basestation's coverage area. The present invention also provides techniquesfor providing services to customer premises equipment devices withoutthe need for a landline connection to the customer premise in which thecustomer premise equipment devices are located. The present inventionalso includes new methods and apparatus for providing additionalresources or capacity, e.g., bandwidth, to customer premises thatinclude landline or other wireless connections. The invention beingparticularly useful when the landline connection and/or other wirelessconnections provide insufficient bandwidth or spectrum for the servicesbeing requested by the devices at the customer premises. Variousembodiments of the present invention solve one or more of the problemsdiscussed above.

Various embodiments of the present invention utilize CBRS Fixed WirelessAccess base stations and CBRS Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) basestations to provide services, e.g., broadband services, devices locatedat a customer's premises that does not have a landline connection or insome embodiments the landline connection is insufficient to service thevarious devices located at the customer's premises. The CBRS CPE basestations being located at a customer premise in the coverage area ofmultiple CBRS fixed wireless access tower base stations. The CBRS CPEbase station selecting a main or primary CBRS fixed wireless access basestation from a plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations from which itreceives a reference signal. The selection being based on the strengthof the reference signals received from each of the plurality of CBRS FWAtower base stations. The CBRS CPE base station registering and/orestablishing and maintaining a wireless link connection with theselected CBRS FWA tower base station. When the CBRS CPE base stationdetermines the primary CBRS FWA tower base station has insufficientresources, e.g., spectrum, allocated to the CBRS CPE base station neededto support the services being provided the user equipment devices by theCBRS CPE base station, CBRS CPE base station temporarily reserves andutilizes resources, e.g., spectrum, from other CBRS FWA tower basestations which are referred to as auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stationstherein overcoming the congestion problem.

By using one or more of the techniques described herein a CitizensBroadband Radio Service Customer Premise Equipment base station canprovide services, e.g., broadband services, to devices located at acustomer's premises that does not include a landline for providingbroadband services such as internet access, media download, video ondemand services, voice over internet protocol services, etc.

An exemplary method embodiment of operating a Citizens Broadband RadioService Customer Premise Equipment (CBRS CPE) base station in a CBRSnetwork includes the steps of: receiving, by the CBRS CPE base station,over the air from each of a plurality of Citizens Broadband RadioService Fixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower base stations a referencesignal; selecting, based on the strength of each of the receivedreference signals, a primary CBRS FWA tower base station from theplurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; establishing, by the CBRS CPEbase station, a wireless communications link connection with the CBRSFWA tower base station selected as the primary CBRS FWA tower basestation; and reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount ofspectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations.

In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station is located at a customerpremises which does not include a wired or optical broadband serviceconnection. In some embodiments, user equipment devices located at thecustomer premises at which the CBRS CPE base station is located are onlyprovided broadband services through wireless communications, saidwireless communications including CBRS network wireless communications.In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station is located at a customerpremises which has no landline connection.

In most embodiments, one or more of the plurality of CBRS FWA tower basestations are simultaneously operated as or simultaneously serve asprimary CBRS CPE base stations and auxiliary CBRS CPE base stations withregard to different additional CBRS CPE base stations located withintheir coverage area. The plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations alsohave overlapping coverage areas.

In some embodiments, the step of selecting, based on the strength ofeach of the received reference signals a primary CBRS FWA tower basestation from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations includes: (i)determining, by the CBRS CPE base station, a Reference Signal ReceivedPower (RSRP) level value for each reference signal received from theplurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; and (ii) selecting, by theCBRS CPE base station, the CBRS FWA base station having the strongestRSRP level value as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station.

In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station designates one or more ofthe CBRS FWA base stations which were not selected as the primary CBRSFWA tower base station as auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.

The CBRS CPE base station provides broadband services to one or moredevices, e.g., user equipment devices or subscriber devices, located ata customer premises.

The CBRS CPE base station in some embodiments includes at least a firstportion and a second portion, the first portion of the CBRS CPE basestation is located within a building at the customer premises and thesecond portion of the CPE CBRS base station which includes an antenna orantenna array is mounted at an elevated position at the customerspremises. The antenna or antenna array being used to wirelesslycommunicate with said primary CBRS FWA base station and one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA base stations.

The antenna or antenna array is sometimes mounted on the roof of thebuilding at the customer premises or on a pole outside the building atthe customer premises.

The CBRS CPE base station typically includes a plurality ofcommunications interfaces such as for example a first wirelesscommunications interface for communicating with CBRS FWA base stationsand a second wireless communications interface for communicating withuser equipment devices. The user equipment devices in some embodimentsare CBRS user equipment devices such as for example CBRS phones.

Prior to the step of reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, spectrumfor communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestations, in some embodiments the CBRS CPE base station determineswhether an amount of spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWA basestation to the CBRS CPE base station for device to device communicationsbetween the CBRS CPE base station and the CBRS FWA base station issufficient for providing the broadband services to the one or more userequipment devices located at the customer premises; and when the amountof spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWA base station to the CBRSCPE base station for device to device communications between the CBRSCPE base station and the CBRS FWA base station is not sufficient forproviding the broadband services to the one or more user equipmentdevices located at the customer premises, the CBRS CPE base stationdetermines an amount of additional spectrum required for providing thebroadband services to the one or more user equipment devices located atthe customer premises. The amount of spectrum reserved, by the CBRS CPEbase station, for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base stations is an amount which equals or exceeds the amount ofadditional spectrum required for providing the broadband services to theone or more user equipment devices located at the customer premises.

In some embodiments, the step of determining, by the CBRS CPE basestation, whether an amount of spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWAbase station to the CBRS CPE base station for device to devicecommunications between the CBRS CPE base station and the CBRS FWA basestation is sufficient for providing the broadband services to the one ormore user equipment devices located at the customer premises includesthe CBRS CPE base station measuring a load that is caused by serving theuser equipment devices located at the customers premises and/or withinthe CBRS CPE base stations coverage area.

In some embodiments, the method further includes the following steps:establishing, by the CBRS CPE base station, temporary wirelesscommunications link connections with the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base stations; utilizing said reserved spectrum for providing saidbroadband services to the one or more user equipment devices located atthe customer premises and determining, by the CBRS CPE base stations,when said reserved spectrum is no longer needed to support the broadbandservices being provided by the CBRS CPE base station to the userequipment devices located at the customer premises releasing, by theCBRS CPE base station, reserved spectrum determined to no longer beneeded, and terminating, by the CBRS CPE base station, the temporarywireless communications link connections with the one or more auxiliaryCBRS FWA tower base stations when said reserved spectrum is released.

In some embodiment the step of reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station,an amount of spectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRSFWA tower base stations includes: requesting from one or more of the oneor more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations what spectrum each CBRSFWA tower has available.

In some embodiments, the method further includes determining which ofthe one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station to reserveavailable spectrum from based on: (i) the amount of additional spectrumto be reserved, (ii) an amount of spectrum reported as being availableat the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station, and (iii) the strength ofthe reference signal received from the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestation.

Various method embodiments include the steps of: (i) monitoring, by theCBRS CPE base station, for a change in a radio frequency link capacityrequired to serve the one or more user equipment devices located at thecustomer premises and upon detecting a change in the radio frequencylink capacity required to serve the one or more user equipment deviceslocated at the customer premises determining if an amount of additionalspectrum in excess of the amount of spectrum allocated by the primaryCBRS tower base station is required. When an amount of additionalspectrum in excess of the amount of spectrum allocated by the primaryCBRS tower base station is determined to be required, (i) the CBRS CPEbase station requests one or more of the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestations provide information indicating an amount of spectrum thecorresponding auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station has available andthen reserves available spectrum from one or more of the one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations based on the amount of additionalspectrum required, the amount of spectrum available, and the strength ofthe RSRP level value of the reference signal received from the one ormore auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.

In some other embodiments, the method further includes the steps of:prior to reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrumfor communicating with the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestations, ranking, by the CBRS CPE base station, the plurality of CBRSFWA base stations from strongest RSRP level value to weakest RSRP levelvalue; requesting, by the CBRS CPE base station, spectrum availabilityfrom the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA base stations; and selectingsaid one or more CBRS FWA base stations from which to reserve an amountof spectrum based on: (i) amount of spectrum to be reserved, (ii)auxiliary CBRS FWA base station's spectrum availability and RSRPranking.

The present invention is applicable to apparatus and system embodimentswherein one or more devices implement the steps of the methodembodiments. In some apparatus embodiments each of the CBRS tower basestations, CBRS CPE base stations, user equipment devices, SAS devicesand each of the other apparatus/devices of the system include one ormore processors and/or hardware circuitry, input/output interfacesincluding receivers and transmitters, and a memory. The memory includinginstructions when executed by one or more of the processors control theapparatus/device of the system to operate to perform the steps ofvarious method embodiments of the invention.

The present invention is also applicable to and includes apparatus andsystems such as for example, apparatus and systems that implement thesteps of the method embodiments. For example, a CBRS CPE base station inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention includes:memory; a first wireless input/output interface that communicates with aplurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed Wireless Access(CBRS FWA) tower base stations; a second wireless input/output interfacethat communicates with user equipment devices; a processor that controlthe CBRS CPE base station to: receive, by the first wirelessinput/output interface, over the air from each of a plurality ofCitizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) towerbase stations a reference signal; select, based on the strength of eachof the received reference signals, a primary CBRS FWA tower base stationfrom the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; establish, by theCBRS CPE base station, a wireless communications link connection withthe CBRS FWA tower base station selected as the primary CBRS FWA towerbase station; and reserve, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount ofspectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations.

In some embodiments, the processor further controls the CBRS CPE basestation to: monitor for a change in a radio frequency link capacityrequired to serve the one or more user equipment devices located at thecustomer premises; and upon detecting a change in the radio frequencylink capacity required to serve the one or more user equipment deviceslocated at the customer premises, determine if an amount of additionalspectrum in excess of the amount of spectrum allocated by the primaryCBRS tower base station is required; and when an amount of additionalspectrum in excess of the amount of spectrum allocated by the primaryCBRS tower base station is determined to be required: (i) requesting, bythe CBRS CPE base station, one or more of the auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations provide information indicating an amount of spectrum thecorresponding auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station has available; (ii)reserving available spectrum from one or more of the one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations based on the amount of additionalspectrum required, the amount of spectrum available, and the strength ofthe RSRP level value of the reference signal received from the one ormore auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.

While various embodiments have been discussed in the summary above, itshould be appreciated that not necessarily all embodiments include thesame features and some of the features described above are not necessarybut can be desirable in some embodiments. Numerous additional features,embodiments and benefits of various embodiments are discussed in thedetailed description which follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary Citizens Broadband Radio Service networksystem 100 that provides wireless communications services in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates the combination of FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C.

FIG. 2A illustrates the steps of the first part of an exemplary methodin accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2B illustrates the steps of the second part of an exemplary methodin accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2C illustrates the steps of the third part of an exemplary methodin accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates details of an exemplary Citizens Broadband RadioService Customer Premise Equipment (CBRS CPE) base station in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates details of an exemplary Citizens Broadband RadioService tower base station (CBRS tower or CBRS tower base station) inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates details of an exemplary User Equipment (UE) device inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates details of an exemplary Spectrum Access System device(SAS) in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary assembly of components for a CBRS towerbase station in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary assembly of components for a userequipment device in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary assembly of components for a SAS devicein accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary assembly of components for a CBRS CPEbase station in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary table of a CBRS tower base stationsranked from strongest to weakest reference signal received power (RSRP)level.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary table of a CBRS tower base stationsranked from strongest to weakest reference signal received power (RSRP)level as well as the designations and connection status of the CBRStower base stations.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary table of a CBRS tower base stationsranked from strongest to weakest reference signal received power (RSRP)level as well as the designation and connection status of the CBRS towerbase stations.

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary table of a CBRS tower base stationsranked from strongest to weakest reference signal received power (RSRP)level as well as the designation, available spectrum, and connectionstatus of the CBRS tower base stations.

FIG. 15 illustrates exemplary signaling between a CBRS CPE base stationand an auxiliary CBRS base station in connection with reservingavailable spectrum.

FIG. 16 illustrates exemplary signaling between a CBRS CPE base stationand an auxiliary CBRS base station showing the rejection of availablespectrum by the CBRS CPE base station.

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary method of reserving spectrum fromauxiliary CBRS tower base stations in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present.

FIG. 18 illustrates another exemplary method of reserving spectrum fromauxiliary CBRS tower base stations in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The current invention is applicable to Citizens Broadband Radio Service(CBRS) networks that provide wireless communications services, e.g.,broadband services. The present invention solves the network resourcecongestion problem in customer premises equipment devices (CPEs) used incitizens broadband radio service fixed wireless access networks. Themain issues or technological problems with known CPE devices is the lackof fixed wireless access base station resources. The present inventionrelates to methods, systems and apparatus for providing services tosubscriber user devices at a customer's premises, e.g., house, business,or other location, via a CBRS customer premise equipment base stationthat reserves spectrum bandwidth resources for communicating with one ormore CBRS fixed wireless access tower base stations in the CBRS networkto provide broadband services to the user devices within its coveragearea. Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to newapparatus and methods for providing wireless services to a new type ofCBRS base station, a customer premise equipment base station, located ata customer's premises and providing services to users located at thecustomer's premises.

Citizens Broadband Radio Service networks are networks that include userequipment devices, e.g., mobile or wireless devices such as for examplecell phones, smart phones, laptops, tablets, Citizens Broadband RadioService Devices (CBSDs) which serve as access points/base stations, andSpectrum Access Systems which provides spectrum assignments and managefrequency interference through power management of the CBSDstransmission power. The Citizens Broadband Radio Service networkutilizes the 150 megahetz in the 3550-3700 MHz band referred to as the3.5 GHz Band. One important aspect of the CBRS network is the limitationof interference, e.g., radio transmission, from multiple transmissionsources, e.g., multiple CBSD devices located near each other or in closeproximity to one another. The CBRS network includes Spectrum AccessSystems that obtain information about registered or licensed commercialusers in the 3.5 GHz band from FCC databases and information aboutfederal incumbent users of the band from ESC (Environmental SensingCapability) system and interact directly or indirectly with CBSDsoperating in the band to ensure that Citizens Broadband Radio Serviceusers operate in a manner consistent with their authorizations andpromote efficient use of the spectrum resource. Among the SpectrumAccess System functions as defined in the Amendment of the Commission'sRules with Regard to Commercial Operations in the 3550-3650 MHz Bandreleased Apr. 21, 2015 are that: it determines the available frequenciesat a given geographic location and assign them to CBSDs; it determinesthe maximum permissible transmission power level for CBSDs at a givenlocation and communicates that information to the CBSDs; it registersand authenticates the identification information and location of CBSDs;it enforces exclusion and protection zones, including any future changesto such Zones, to ensure compatibility between Citizens Broadband RadioService users and incumbent federal operations; it protects PriorityAccess Licensees (PAL) from impermissible interference from otherCitizens Broadband Radio Service users; ensures secure and reliabletransmission of information between the SAS, ESC, and CBSDs; and itfacilitates coordination and information exchange between SASs. Throughthe management of the CBSDs power transmission levels in a geographicalarea the SAS manages the radio interference in the geographical area.

Various embodiments of the present invention describe methods,apparatus, systems and techniques for managing the allocation and use ofresources, e.g., spectrum, from a plurality of CBSDs, i.e., CBRS FixedWireless Access Tower base stations at the same time to provideservices, e.g., broadband services, to a plurality of devices located ata customer's premises such as a home via a Citizens Broadband RadioService Customer Premise Equipment base station.

In the present invention, Citizen Broadband Radio Service spectrum, 3.5GHz frequency spectrum band, is used to serve nomadic and stationaryusers. This use case is referred to as fixed wireless access, and a newfixed wireless access base station is used to serve special equipmentreferred to as CBRS Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) base stations. Theinvention is particularly useful to provide broadband services togeographically isolated or remote areas, e.g., rural areas, where wiredor optical connections are expensive and not economical given the numberof customers to be serviced.

The CBRS CPE base stations are located at a customer's premises insideof a house, business or any place where there are CBRS network users.The CBRS CPE base station is coupled or connected to a plurality of CBRSfixed wireless access (FWA) tower base stations over wirelesscommunications links. The CBRS CPE base station is typically located ina building such as a home and is coupled to one or more antennas or anantenna array through which the CBRS CPE base station transmits to andreceives from the antenna(s) of the CBRS FWA tower base stationswireless signals over the wireless communications links. These wirelesscommunications links also being in the 3.5 GHz frequency spectrum band.The CBRS CPE base stations serve subscribers or users located in theircoverage area, e.g., in the house, building, or on the customer'spremises.

The CBRS FWA tower base stations are CBSD devices and as such have theirtransmission power levels and spectrum bandwidth allocated or assignedto them via a Spectrum Access System of the CBRS network.

Each CBRS FWA tower base station is coupled to and registered with aCBRS network Spectrum Access System (SAS) of the CBRS network. The CBRSnetwork Spectrum Access System manages the allocation of CBRS networkspectrum and transmission power levels. The SAS is responsible forassigning/allocating spectrum to the CBRS FWA tower base stations. Insome embodiments, CBRS CPE base stations are also coupled to andregistered with the CBRS Spectrum Access System either directly or via aCBRS FWA tower base station. The SAS in such systems takes into accountthe different types of devices being supported by the CBRS FWA towerbase station when assigning spectrum for use. The CPE CBRS antenna(s)are typically located at an elevated position such as for example on thetop of a roof of a building or on a pole outside the building in whichthe CBRS CPE base station is located.

The transmission power levels allocated for the CBRS FWA tower basestations are high in comparison to the transmission power level of theCBRS CPE base stations. For example, a CBRS FWA tower base stationcoverage area can include hundreds of customer premises while the CBRSCPE base station has a much smaller coverage area. Each CBRS CPE basestation located at a customer's premises provides services tosubscriber's user equipment devices such as computers, laptops tablets,smart devices (e.g., appliances, watches, smartTVs), streaming devices,WiFi devices, CBRS enabled devices (e.g., CBRS phones), within the CBRSCPE coverage range at the customer's premises. In some embodiments, theCBRS CPE base station includes wireless interfaces so that it cancommunicate with not only CBRS wireless user equipment devices but alsowith WiFi devices. In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station haswired and/or optical interfaces so that it can be coupled to andcommunicate with WiFi base stations or devices with wired and/or opticalinterfaces such as internet telephony systems, cable network devices,internet media streaming devices, e.g., over wired or optical networks(e.g., local area networks or wide area networks) at the customer'spremises. The CBRS CPE base stations in some embodiments are enhancedCBRS phones which are coupled to roof mounted antennas and include a SIMcard and additional circuitry and programming instructions or code forproviding base station capabilities to user equipment devices and forcommunicating with the CBRS FWA tower base station.

Various features of an exemplary method embodiment of the presentinvention will now be discussed. The method starts in a first step withthe CBRS tower base station being assigned spectrum from an SAS.

In the second step, a CPE base station at a customer premises becomesactive and receives a reference signal from a plurality of CBRS towerbase stations. The CBRS CPE base station supports all 3.5 GHz spectrumbands assigned by the SAS, and/or defined by CBRS standardizationbodies. The CBRS CPE base station connects with the CBRS tower basestation from which it is receiving the strongest reference signal. Thisis the CBRS CPE base stations primary CBRS tower base station with whichit continuously maintains a wireless communications link connection.

In the third step, the CBRS CPE base station creates or generates atable or record that contains all CBRS tower base stations from whichthe CBRS CPE tower base station is receiving a reference signal alongwith CBRS tower base station identity and Reference Signal ReceivedPower (RSRP) signal measurements. The CBRS CPE base station ranks all ofthe CBRS tower base stations with the strongest RSRP power level beingranked first. While the CBRS tower base station has been selected to bethe primary CBRS tower base station for the CBRS CPE base station, theremaining CBRS tower base stations who have resources to serve the CBRSCPE base station are designated as auxiliary CBRS tower base stationsfor the CBRS CPE base station. The CBRS CPE base station will maketemporary wireless communications connections with one or more auxiliaryCBRS tower bases when the CBRS CPE base station requires resources whichare not available from the primary CBRS tower base station.

In the fourth step, the CBRS CPE base station measures its own loadwhich is caused by serving the CBRS subscribers inside the house or onthe customer premises at which the CBRS CPE base station is located, forexample.

After measuring its load, in the fifth step, the CBRS CPE base stationmeasures the CBRS Radio Frequency (RF) link capacity between the CBRSCPE base station and the primary CBRS tower base station and thendetermines if the measured capacity is enough to serve all subscribes inits coverage area. If the determination is that there is sufficient CBRSRF link capacity to serve all subscribers in its coverage area, then theCBRS CPE base station maintains its current operational state, i.e., awireless link connection to the primary CBRS tower base station. Ifhowever, the determination is that there is not a sufficient CBRS RFlink capacity to serve all subscribers in its coverage area, the CBRSCPE base station will check its table to find the second strongest CBRStower base station based on RSRP power level and ask that CBRS towerbase station (which is an auxiliary CBRS tower base station) if it hasany available capacity in terms of MHz. In response, the CBRS tower basestation can answer back to the CBRS CPE base station whether it has 1.4MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz, or 20 MHz of available spectrum. CBRSCPE base station will then either accept or reject the CBRS tower basestation offer of spectrum depending on the amount of available spectrumoffered by the CBRS tower base station.

In the sixth step, if the CBRS CPE base station needs less than thespectrum reported by the second strongest CBRS tower base station, theCBRS CPE base station adds this CBRS tower base station's band as asecond carrier establishing a temporary connection to the secondstrongest CBRS tower base station in addition to the connectionestablished and being maintained by the CBRS CPE base station with theprimary CBRS tower base station. If the CBRS CPE base station determinesthat it needs more than the amount of spectrum reported as beingavailable by the second strongest CBRS tower base station, the CBRS CPEbase station determines which of the auxiliary CBRS tower base stationsor combination of auxiliary CBRS tower base stations from which it isreceiving a reference signal have the additional spectrum available andadds their carrier bands. In selecting the auxiliary CBRS tower basestation or combination of auxiliary CBRS tower base stations, the CBRSCPE base station can use a variety of different selection criteria. Onesuch selection criteria is for the CBRS CPE base station to establish asfew connections as possible as a first criteria and then prioritizingthe connections based on the signal strength of the CBRS tower basestations.

Exemplary procedures for deciding which auxiliary CBRS tower basestations to utilize will now be discussed. In a first example, the CBRSCPE base station would add the second strongest CBRS tower base station,calculate the additional amount of spectrum still needed, and ask theother strong CBRS tower base stations to repost their availablespectrum, adding additional CBRS tower base stations until a sufficientamount of spectrum has been added. In a second example, the CBRS CPEbase station would not add the second strongest CBRS tower base stationbut would find the next strongest CBRS tower base station, ask it forits available spectrum, and continue the process till a CBRS tower basestation is found having the full amount of spectrum needed and then addthat CBRS tower base station. If no auxiliary CBRS tower base stationhas available the full amount of spectrum needed, then the CBRS CPEtower base station chooses the CBRS tower base stations so that firstthe minimum number of CBRS tower base stations will have to been addedand then the strongest CBRS tower base stations when multiplecombinations provide the minimum number of CBRS tower base stationsneeded to be added.

In the seventh and final step, once all the data the subscribers areasking for is delivered, the CBRS CPE base station disconnects from theauxiliary CBRS tower base stations but remains connected to the primaryCBRS tower base station.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary CBRS network communications system 100having an architecture implemented in accordance with the presentinvention and being coupled to a network 190 (e.g., the internet). TheCBRS communications network system 100 includes a plurality of CitizensBroadcast Radio Service FWA tower base stations (CBRS tower basestations) (CBRS tower base station 1 102, CBRS tower base station 2 104,CBRS tower base station 3 106, . . . , CBRS tower base station N 108 (Nbeing an integer greater than 3)), a plurality of Spectrum Access Systemdevices (SAS 1 110, SAS 2 184), a plurality of customer premises(customer premises 1 114, customer premises 2 150, . . . , customerpremises X 156, X being an integer greater than 2), a plurality of CBRSCustomer Premises Equipment base stations (CBRS CPE base station 1 112,CBRS CPE base station 2 152, . . . , CBRS CPE base station X 158, Xbeing integer greater than 2), an ESC system 186, a FCC Database System182, and a plurality of communications links 122, 124, 126, 128, 130,132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 170, 172, 173, 176, 178, and181. The CBRS system 100 is coupled to a network 190, e.g., theInternet, through which various services can be provided such as forexample voice over internet call services, video on demand services,video conferencing services. In some embodiments, the network is a partof the CBRS network and the services are provided from CBRS networkservice providers. In the example system shown in FIG. 1 the CBRS towerbase station 1 is illustrated as being coupled or connected to thenetwork 190 via communications link 191 which may be a wired, wirelessor optical link. Though not shown the other CBRS tower base stations arealso typically coupled or connected to the network 190 viacommunications links. In some embodiments, the CBRS tower base stationsare coupled to a packet gateway system which is part of and located inthe network 190.

CBRS CPE base station 1 (CPE BS 1) 112 includes an antenna system 113,e.g., one or more antenna or an antenna area, for communicating with theCBRS tower base stations mounted on a roof of a building 115, e.g.,home, located in customer premises 1 114. The antenna being coupled to aportion of the CBRS CPE base station 1 which is located inside the house115 and which typically also includes separate antennas and interfacesfor communicating with user equipment devices located at the customerpremises or within its coverage range. CBRS CPE base station 2 (CPE BS2) 152 is located at the customer premises 2 150 and includes an antennasystem 154 located at an elevated position (e.g., mounted on a pole orroof of a building located at the customer premises 2 150) forcommunicating with CBRS tower base stations. The elevation of theantenna system allows for less obstruction of wireless signals do toother structures and hence provides for a larger geographical areawithin which it can exchange wireless signals with CBRS tower basestations. CBRS CPE base station X (CPE BS X) 158 is located at thecustomer premises X 156 and includes an antenna system 160 located at anelevated position (e.g., mounted on a pole or roof of a building locatedat the customer premises X 156) for communicating with CBRS tower basestations.

SAS 1 110 is coupled to SAS 2 184 via communications link 178. SAS 1 110is coupled to FCC Databases 182 via communications link 176. SAS 2 184is coupled to FCC Databases 182 via communications link 181. ESC system186 is coupled to SAS 1 110 and SAS 2 184 via communications links 170and 172 respectively. The ESC System 186 is coupled to the FCC Databases182 via communications link 173. The ESC system 186 is used to detectand/or sense Navy radar operations in CBRS operation within 3550-3650MHz near the coasts and provide notifications over the communicationslinks to SAS 1 110 and SAS 2 184. SAS 1 110 manages the CBRS tower base1 102, CBRS tower base station 2 104, CBRS tower base station 3 106, . .. , CBSR tower base station N 108 spectrum allocation and transmissionpower to limit interference in the CBRS network. SAS 2 184 manages CBSDsincluding other CBRS tower base stations in the CBRS network which arenot shown in FIG. 1. SAS 1 110 and SAS 2 184 communicate and shareinformation regarding the CBRS network coverage of the CBSDs includingCBRS tower base stations each respectively manage and coordinatemanagement of the allocation of spectrum and power transmission levelsof CBSDs including CBRS tower base stations throughout the CBRS network.While only two SAS devices are shown in FIG. 1 it should be understoodthat additional SAS devices are typically used in the CBRS network. Insome embodiments, one or more of the CBRS tower base stations are alsocoupled or connected to each other either through wired and/or wirelesscommunications links so that they can communicate and exchangeinformation.

The communications links 122, 124, 126, 128, 136, and 138 are wirelesscommunications links in the 3.5 GHz frequency spectrum band. Thecommunications links 122 couples or connect CBRS tower 1 base station102 to CBRS CPE base station 1 112. The communications links 124, 126,and 128 are also wireless communications link in the 3.5 GHz frequencyspectrum band and couple or connects CBRS tower 2 base station 104, CBRStower 3 base station 106 and CBRS tower N base station 108 to CBRS CPEbase station 1 112 respectively. The communications link 136 is also awireless communications link in the 3.5 GHz frequency spectrum band thatcouples or connects CBRS tower N base station 108 to CBRS CPE basestation 2 152. The communications link 138 is a wireless communicationslink in the 3.5 GHz frequency spectrum band that couples or connectsCBRS tower base station N 108 to CBRS CPE base station X 158.

Communications links 140, 142, 144, 146, 170, 172, 173, 176, 178, 181are typically wired communications links or fiber optical cables.Communications links 140, 142, 144, and 146 couple or connect SAS 1 110to CBRS tower base station 1 102, CBRS tower base station 2 104, CBRStower base station 3 106 and CBRS tower base station N 108 respectively.

The communications links 130, 132, . . . , 134 couple or connect userequipment device 1 (UE 1) 116, user equipment device 2 (UE 2) 118, . . ., user equipment device M 120 to CBRS CPE 112 respectively. Thecommunications links may be wired, optical or wireless over the aircommunications links. In some embodiments when the user equipment deviceis a CBRS wireless device such as a CBRS phone the communications linkis a CBRS wireless communications link in the 3.5 GHz frequency spectrumband. In some embodiments, when the user equipment device is a WiFidevice the CBRS CPE 112 includes a wireless WiFi interface and thecommunication link is a wireless WiFi link.

In the example system 100, one or more of the customer premises do nothave wired or optical communications links that provide broadbandservices to the user devices located at the customer premises insteadbroadband services are provided by the CBRS network by the wirelesscommunications links coupling the CBRS tower base stations to the CBRSCPE base station located at the customer premises.

It is to be understood that the communication links shown in system 100are only exemplary and other network configurations and communicationslinks may be employed that couple together the devices, base stations,nodes, entities, and databases of the system 100. Elements or steps withthe same reference numbers used in different figures are the same orsimilar and those elements or steps will not be described in detailagain.

While for the sake of simplicity in explaining the invention system 100only illustrates four CBRS tower base station devices, two SAS devicesand a few customer premises, CBRS CPE base stations and only a singleCBRS CPE base station servicing a few UE devices, it will be appreciatedthat system 100 typically includes a large plurality of CBRS tower basestations with a large number, e.g., hundreds of customer premises withinthe CBRS tower base station's coverage range including a CBRS CPE basestation which is supporting a plurality of UE devices at the customerpremises with the CBRS tower base stations being managed by a pluralityof SAS devices which are in communication with one another.

FIG. 3 is a drawing of an exemplary Citizens Broadband Radio ServiceCustomer Premise Equipment base station (CBRS CPE base station) 300 inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment. Exemplary CBRS CPE base station300 includes wireless interfaces 304, a network interface 305, e.g., awired or optical interface, a processor 306, e.g., a CPU, an assembly ofhardware components 308, e.g., an assembly of circuits, and I/Ointerface 310 and memory 312 coupled together via a bus 309 over whichthe various elements may interchange data and information. CBRS CPE basestation 300 further includes a speaker 352, a display 354, switches 356,keypad 358 and mouse 359 coupled to I/O interface 310, via which thevarious I/O devices (352, 354, 356, 358, 359) may communicate with otherelements (304, 305, 306, 308, 312) of the CBSR CPE base station 300.Network interface 305 includes a receiver 378 and a transmitter 380. Insome embodiments, receiver 378 and transmitter 380 are part of atransceiver 384. Wireless interfaces 304 include a plurality of wirelessinterfaces including first wireless interface 324 and a second wirelessinterface 350. The first wireless interface 324 is used to communicatewith CBRS tower base stations and the second wireless interface 350 isused to communicate with UE devices, e.g., located within the customerpremises or home. The first wireless interface 324 includes wirelessreceiver 338 and a wireless transmitter 340. In some embodiments,receiver 338 and transmitter 340 are part of a transceiver. In variousembodiments, the first wireless interface 324 includes a plurality ofwireless receivers and a plurality of wireless transmitters. Wirelessreceiver 338 is coupled to a plurality of receive antennas (receiveantenna 1 339, . . . , receive antenna M 341), via which CBRS CPE basestation 300 can receive wireless signals from other wirelesscommunications devices including a second wireless communicationsdevice, e.g., a CBRS tower base station. Wireless transmitter 340 iscoupled to a plurality of wireless transmit antennas (transmit antenna 1343, . . . , transmit antenna N 345) via which the CBRS CPE base station300 can transmit signals to other wireless communications devicesincluding a second wireless communications device, e.g., CBRS tower basestation. The antennas 339, . . . , 341 and 343, . . . , 345 aretypically mounted on the roof of the building in which the CBRS CPE basestation is located or on a poll at an elevated height with the otherelements of the CBRS CPE base station being connected to the antennasvia a wired or fiber optic connection. In some embodiments the variousantennas form an antenna array with the antennas pointing in differentdirections.

The second wireless interface 350 includes wireless receiver 352 and awireless transmitter 354. In some embodiments, receiver 352 andtransmitter 354 are part of a transceiver. In various embodiments, thesecond wireless interface 350 includes a plurality of wireless receiversand a plurality of wireless transmitters. Wireless receiver 352 iscoupled to one or more receive antennas (receive antenna 1 356, . . . ,receive antenna M 357), via which CBRS CPE base station 300 can receivewireless signals from other wireless communications devices including asecond wireless communications device, e.g., UE devices located in thehome or on the customer premises such as for example, mobile phonessupporting CBRS or Wifi connections. Wireless transmitter 354 is coupledto one or more wireless transmit antennas (transmit antenna 1 358, . . ., transmit antenna N 360) via which the CBRS CPE base station 300 cantransmit signals to other wireless communications devices including asecond wireless communications device, e.g., e.g., UE devices located inthe home or on the customer premises such as for example, mobile phonessupporting CBRS or Wifi connections. The CBRS CPE network interface 305may be coupled to LAN networks, WANs, routers, e.g., WiFi routers, sothat various devices in the home without wireless interfaces can also beserviced via wired or optical links by the CBRS CPE base station 300.

Memory 312 includes an assembly of component 314, e.g., an assembly ofsoftware components, and data/information 316. Data/information 316includes UE device information corresponding to a plurality of userequipment devices (UE device A information 317, . . . , UE device Minformation 319 where A to M are the UE devices being serviced by theCBRS CPE base station) and CBRS tower base station information (CBRSbase station 1 information 320, . . . , CBRS base station N information322). In some embodiments, one or more of CBRS CPE base station 1 112,CBRS CPE base station 2 152, . . . , CBRS CPE base station X 158, andCBRS CPE base station 1502 are implemented in accordance with CBRS CPEbase station 300.

FIG. 4 is a drawing of an exemplary Citizens Broadband Radio ServiceFixed Wireless Access Tower Base Station (CBRS tower base station) 400in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Exemplary CBRS tower basestation 400 includes a wireless interface 404, a network interface 405,e.g., a wired or optical interface, a processor 406, e.g., a CPU, anassembly of hardware components 408, e.g., an assembly of circuits, andI/O interface 410 and memory 412 coupled together via a bus 409 overwhich the various elements may interchange data and information. CBRStower base station 400 further includes a speaker 452, a display 454,switches 456, keypad 458 and mouse 459 coupled to I/O interface 410, viawhich the various I/O devices (452, 454, 456, 458, 459) may communicatewith other elements (404, 405, 406, 408, 412) of the CBSR tower basestation 400. Network interface 405 includes a receiver 478 and atransmitter 480. In some embodiments, receiver 478 and transmitter 480are part of a transceiver 484. Wireless interface 404 includes awireless receiver 438 and a wireless transmitter 440. In someembodiments, receiver 438 and transmitter 440 are part of a transceiver424. In various embodiments, wireless interface 404 includes a pluralityof wireless receivers and a plurality of wireless transmitters. Wirelessreceiver 438 is coupled to a plurality of receive antennas (receiveantenna 1 439, . . . , receive antenna M 441), via which CBRS tower basestation 400 can receive wireless signals from other wirelesscommunications devices including a second wireless communicationsdevice, e.g., a UE device or a CBRS CPE base station. Wirelesstransmitter 440 is coupled to a plurality of wireless transmit antennas(transmit antenna 1 443, . . . , transmit antenna N 445) via which theCBRS tower base station 400 can transmit signals to other wirelesscommunications devices including a second wireless communicationsdevice, e.g., a UE device or a CBRS CPE base station. Memory 412includes an assembly of component 414, e.g., an assembly of softwarecomponents, and data/information 416. Data/information 416 includes UEdevice information corresponding to a plurality of user equipmentdevices (UE device A information 417, . . . , UE device M information419 where A to M are the UE devices being serviced by the CBRS towerbase station) and CBRS CPE base station information (CPE base stationdevice 1 information 420, . . . , CPE base station device X information422). In some embodiments, the CBRS tower base station 400 only providesservices to CBRS CPE base stations and does not provide servicesdirectly to UE devices. In some embodiments the CBRS tower base station400 primarily serves CBRS CPE base stations but also serves UE devices.In some embodiments, one or more of CBRS Tower 1 102, CBRS Tower 2 104,CBRS Tower 3 106, . . . , CBRS Tower N 108 are implemented in accordancewith CBRS fixed wireless access tower base station 400.

FIG. 5 is a drawing of an exemplary user equipment (UE) device 500 inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment. UE device 500 is, e.g., acomputer, a mobile device such as a cell phone, a smart phone, wirelesstablet or wireless notebook, a smartTV, internet cable box, internetenabled device, WiFi device. UE device 500, in some embodiments,includes WiFi mobile device capabilities. UE device 500, may be a CBRSuser equipment device operating at the 3.5 GHz band. Exemplary UE device500 includes a wireless interface 504, a network interface 505, aprocessor 506, e.g., a CPU, an assembly of hardware components 508,e.g., an assembly of circuits, and I/O interface 510 and memory 512coupled together via a bus 509 over which the various elements mayinterchange data and information. UE device 500 further includes amicrophone 550, camera 551, speaker 552, a display 554, e.g., a touchscreen display, switches 556, keypad 558 and mouse 559 coupled to I/Ointerface 510, via which the various I/O devices (550, 551, 552, 554,556, 558, 559) may communicate with other elements (504, 505, 506, 508,512) of the UE device. Network interface 505 includes a receiver 578 anda transmitter 580. The network interface 505 can be coupled to routerswithin the home or customer premises or to wired (e.g., cable) oroptical (e.g., fiber-optic) networks. In some embodiments, receiver 578and transmitter 580 are part of a transceiver 584. Wireless interface504 includes a wireless receiver 538 and a wireless transmitter 540. Insome embodiments, receiver 538 and transmitter 540 are part of atransceiver 524. In various embodiments, wireless interface 504 includesa plurality of wireless receivers and a plurality of wirelesstransmitters. Wireless receiver 538 is coupled to one or more receiveantennas (receive antenna 1 539, . . . , receive antenna M 541), viawhich UE device 500 can receive wireless signals from other wirelesscommunications devices including, e.g., a CBRS CPE base station such asCBRS CPE base station 300, wireless router (e.g., a WiFi router).Wireless transmitter 540 is coupled to one or more wireless transmitantennas (transmit antenna 1 543, . . . , transmit antenna N 545) viawhich the UE device 500 can transmit signals to other wirelesscommunications device including a CBRS CPE base station, e.g., a CBRSCPE base station 300 or a wireless router (e.g., a WiFi router). Memory512 includes an assembly of components 514, e.g., an assembly ofsoftware components, and data/information 516. In some embodiments, oneor more UE devices UE 1 116, UE 2 118, . . . , UE M 102 are implementedin accordance with exemplary user equipment device 500.

FIG. 6 is a drawing of an exemplary Spectrum Access System (SAS) device600 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. The SAS 600 includes,among other things, the capabilities of a SAS as defined by the FederalCommunications Commission's Rules with Regard to Commercial Operationsin the 3550-3650 MHz Band. Exemplary SAS device 600 includes a networkinterface 605, e.g., a wired or optical interface, a processor 606,e.g., a CPU, an assembly of hardware components 608, e.g., an assemblyof circuits, an 110 interface 610 and memory 612 coupled together via abus 609 over which the various elements may interchange data andinformation. SAS 600 further includes a speaker 652, a display 654,switches 656, keypad 658 and mouse 659 coupled to I/O interface 610, viawhich the various I/O devices (652, 654, 656, 658, 659) may communicatewith other elements (605, 606, 608, 612) of the SAS 600. Networkinterface 605 includes a receiver 678 and a transmitter 680. The networkinterface 605 is typically used to communicate with other SAS devicesand CBSD devices including CBRS tower base stations. In someembodiments, receiver 678 and transmitter 680 are part of a transceiver684. Memory 612 includes an assembly of component 614, e.g., an assemblyof software components, and data/information 616. Data/information 616includes CBRS tower base station information CBRS tower 1 information617, . . . , CBRS tower N information 619 where N is an integer numbergreater than 1. In some embodiments CBRS CPE base station information isalso stored in data/information 616 of memory 612. Data/information 616also includes CBSD device information corresponding to a plurality ofCBSD devices (CBSD device 1 information 621, . . . , CBSD device Ninformation 623, where N is an integer number). Data/Information 616typically includes CBDS device transmission power and spectrumallocation information including CBRS tower base station transmissionpower and spectrum allocations. While CBRS tower base stationinformation has been shown separately from other CBSD devices, this hasbeen done for explanatory purposes however it is to be understood thatCBRS tower base stations are CBSD devices. In some embodiments, SAS 1110 and SAS 2 184 are implemented in accordance with SAS 600.

FIG. 7 is a drawing of an exemplary assembly of components 700 which maybe included in an exemplary CBRS tower base station device, e.g.,exemplary CBRS tower base station 400 of FIG. 4, in accordance with anexemplary embodiment. The components in the assembly of components 700can, and in some embodiments are, implemented fully in hardware within aprocessor, e.g., processor 406, e.g., as individual circuits. Thecomponents in the assembly of components 700 can, and in someembodiments are, implemented fully in hardware within the assembly ofhardware components 408, e.g., as individual circuits corresponding tothe different components. In other embodiments some of the componentsare implemented, e.g., as circuits, within processor 406 with othercomponents being implemented, e.g., as circuits within assembly ofcomponents 408, external to and coupled to the processor 406. As shouldbe appreciated the level of integration of components on the processorand/or with some components being external to the processor may be oneof design choice. Alternatively, rather than being implemented ascircuits, all or some of the components may be implemented in softwareand stored in the memory 412 of the CBRS tower base station device 400,with the components controlling operation of CBRS tower base stationdevice 400 to implement the functions corresponding to the componentswhen the components are executed by a processor e.g., processor 406. Insome such embodiments, the assembly of components 700 is included in thememory 412 as assembly of software components 414. In still otherembodiments, various components in assembly of components 700 areimplemented as a combination of hardware and software, e.g., withanother circuit external to the processor providing input to theprocessor which then under software control operates to perform aportion of a component's function.

When implemented in software the components include code, which whenexecuted by a processor, e.g., processor 406, configure the processor toimplement the function corresponding to the component. In embodimentswhere the assembly of components 700 is stored in the memory 412, thememory 412 is a computer program product comprising a computer readablemedium comprising code, e.g., individual code for each component, forcausing at least one computer, e.g., processor 406, to implement thefunctions to which the components correspond.

Completely hardware based or completely software based components may beused. However, it should be appreciated that any combination of softwareand hardware, e.g., circuit implemented components may be used toimplement the functions. As should be appreciated, the componentsillustrated in FIG. 7 control and/or configure the CBRS tower basestation device 400 or elements therein such as the processor 406, toperform the functions of corresponding steps illustrated and/ordescribed in the method of one or more of the flowcharts, signalingdiagrams and/or described with respect to any of the Figures. Thus theassembly of components 700 includes various components that performfunctions of corresponding one or more described and/or illustratedsteps of an exemplary method.

Assembly of components 700 includes a control routines component 702, areference signal generator component 704, a communications component706, a resource, e.g., spectrum, bandwidth, power, allocation component708, a message generator component 710, a message processing component712, a spectrum availability determination component 714, anddetermination component 716. The control routines component 702 isconfigured to control operation of the CBRS tower base station. Thereference signal generator component 704 generates a reference signalwhich is sent over the air to devices within the CBRS tower base stationcoverage area, e.g., CBRS CPE base stations. The communicationscomponent 706 is configured to handle communications, e.g., transmissionand reception of messages, and protocol signaling for the CBRS towerbase station. The resource allocation component 708 allocates spectrum(e.g., frequency bandwidth) and/or power for CBRS CPE base stations andCBRS user equipment devices to which it is providing services. Themessage generator component 710 is configured to generate messages fortransmission to other devices. The message processing component 712 isconfigured to process received messages and is sometimes a sub-componentof communications component 706. The spectrum availability determinationcomponent 714 determines the available spectrum that the CBRS tower basestation has available and in some embodiments the amount of time forwhich it is available. The determination component 716 makes variousdeterminations for the CBRS tower base station including determiningamount of spectrum to request from the SAS, power level to use fortransmissions, amount of spectrum to reserve for control signaling withCBRS CPE base stations for which it is a primary CBRS tower basestations.

FIG. 8 is a drawing of an exemplary assembly of components 800 which maybe included in an exemplary user equipment (UE) device, e.g., UE device500 of FIG. 5, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. Thecomponents in the assembly of components 800 can, and in someembodiments are, implemented fully in hardware within a processor, e.g.,processor 506, e.g., as individual circuits. The components in theassembly of components 800 can, and in some embodiments are, implementedfully in hardware within the assembly of hardware components 508, e.g.,as individual circuits corresponding to the different components. Inother embodiments some of the components are implemented, e.g., ascircuits, within processor 506 with other components being implemented,e.g., as circuits within assembly of components 508, external to andcoupled to the processor 506. As should be appreciated the level ofintegration of components on the processor and/or with some componentsbeing external to the processor may be one of design choice.Alternatively, rather than being implemented as circuits, all or some ofthe components may be implemented in software and stored in the memory512 of the UE device 500, with the components controlling operation ofUE device 500 to implement the functions corresponding to the componentswhen the components are executed by a processor e.g., processor 506. Insome such embodiments, the assembly of components 800 is included in thememory 512 as assembly of software components 514. In still otherembodiments, various components in assembly of components 800 areimplemented as a combination of hardware and software, e.g., withanother circuit external to the processor providing input to theprocessor which then under software control operates to perform aportion of a component's function. When implemented in software thecomponents include code, which when executed by a processor, e.g.,processor 506, configure the processor to implement the functioncorresponding to the component. In embodiments where the assembly ofcomponents 800 is stored in the memory 512, the memory 512 is a computerprogram product comprising a computer readable medium comprising code,e.g., individual code for each component, for causing at least onecomputer, e.g., processor 506, to implement the functions to which thecomponents correspond.

Completely hardware based or completely software based components may beused. However, it should be appreciated that any combination of softwareand hardware, e.g., circuit implemented components may be used toimplement the functions. As should be appreciated, the componentsillustrated in FIG. 8 control and/or configure the UE device 500 orelements therein such as the processor 506, to perform the functions ofcorresponding steps illustrated and/or described in the method of one ormore of the flowcharts, signaling diagrams and/or described with respectto any of the Figures. Thus the assembly of components 800 includesvarious components that perform functions of corresponding one or moredescribed and/or illustrated steps of an exemplary method.

Assembly of components 800 includes a control routines component 802, amessage generator component 804, a message processing component 806, acommunications component 808, and an applications component 810. Thecontrol routines component 802 is configured to control operation of theUE. The message generator component 804 is configured to generatemessages for transmission to CBRS CPE devices. The message processingcomponent 806 is configured to process messages received from otherdevices, e.g., a CBRS CPE base station. In some embodiments, the messageprocessing component 806 is a sub-component of the communicationscomponent 808. The communications component 808 is configured to handlecommunications, e.g., receipt and transmission of signals and provideprotocol signal processing for one or more protocols for the UE. Theapplications component 810 is configured to provide various applicationservices for the UE device, e.g., voice over internet protocol callingservices, video on demand services, media download services,conferencing services, internet access and web browsing services, etc.

FIG. 9 is a drawing of an exemplary assembly of components 900 which maybe included in an exemplary SAS device, e.g., exemplary SAS 600 of FIG.6, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. The components in theassembly of components 900 can, and in some embodiments are, implementedfully in hardware within a processor, e.g., processor 606, e.g., asindividual circuits. The components in the assembly of components 900can, and in some embodiments are, implemented fully in hardware withinthe assembly of hardware components 608, e.g., as individual circuitscorresponding to the different components. In other embodiments some ofthe components are implemented, e.g., as circuits, within processor 606with other components being implemented, e.g., as circuits withinassembly of components 608, external to and coupled to the processor606. As should be appreciated the level of integration of components onthe processor and/or with some components being external to theprocessor may be one of design choice. Alternatively, rather than beingimplemented as circuits, all or some of the components may beimplemented in software and stored in the memory 612 of the SAS 600,with the components controlling operation of SAS 600 to implement thefunctions corresponding to the components when the components areexecuted by a processor e.g., processor 606. In some such embodiments,the assembly of components 900 is included in the memory 612 as assemblyof software components 614. In still other embodiments, variouscomponents in assembly of components 900 are implemented as acombination of hardware and software, e.g., with another circuitexternal to the processor providing input to the processor which thenunder software control operates to perform a portion of a component'sfunction.

When implemented in software the components include code, which whenexecuted by a processor, e.g., processor 606, configure the processor toimplement the function corresponding to the component. In embodimentswhere the assembly of components 900 is stored in the memory 612, thememory 612 is a computer program product comprising a computer readablemedium comprising code, e.g., individual code for each component, forcausing at least one computer, e.g., processor 606, to implement thefunctions to which the components correspond.

Completely hardware based or completely software based components may beused. However, it should be appreciated that any combination of softwareand hardware, e.g., circuit implemented components may be used toimplement the functions. As should be appreciated, the componentsillustrated in FIG. 9 control and/or configure the SAS 600 or elementstherein such as the processor 606, to perform the functions ofcorresponding steps illustrated and/or described in the method of one ormore of the flowcharts, signaling diagrams and/or described with respectto any of the Figures. Thus the assembly of components 900 includesvarious components that perform functions of corresponding one or moredescribed and/or illustrated steps of an exemplary method.

Assembly of components 900 includes a control routines component 902, amessage generator component 904, an electromagnetic interferencedetermination component 906, a power management component 908, a CBSDcoverage area estimator component 910, a communications component 912, adeterminator component 914, a spectrum management component 924, aresource allocation component 926, a CBRS tower base station coveragearea estimator component 934. The resource allocation component 926includes in a frequency bandwidth allocation component 928 and atransmission power allocation component 930. The control routinescomponent 902 is configured to control operation of the SAS. The messagegenerator component 904 is configured to generate messages fortransmission to CBSD devices including CBRS tower base stations, e.g.,resource allocations messages including spectrum or frequency bandwidthallocated to a CBSD (e.g., CBRS tower base station) and transmissionpower allocations for the CBSD (e.g., CBRS tower base station). Theelectromagnetic interference determination component 906 is configuredto determine actual or potential electromagnetic interference to becaused by wireless, e.g., radio transmission from active CBSD devices orCBSDs devices which are to become active. The power management component908 is configured to manage power transmission levels to maximize usageof spectrum while minimizing interference and in some embodiments is asub-component of the resource allocation component 926.

The power management component 908 determines the power transmissionlevels for CBSDs, e.g., CBRS tower base stations, managed by the SAS andin some embodiments are sub-components of the resource allocationcomponent 926. The CBSD coverage area estimator component 910 estimatesthe coverage area of a CBSD device. The spectrum management component924 is configured to manage the allocation of frequency spectrum in theCBRS network including frequency bandwidth allocated to CBSDs managed bythe SAS. In some embodiments, the spectrum management component 924 is asub-component of resource allocation component 926. The communicationscomponent 912 is configured to handle communications between the SAS andother nodes, e.g., CBSD device (e.g., CBRS tower base stations), FCCdatabase, ESC system including receipt and transmission of messages andprotocol signaling. The resource allocation component 926 is configuredto allocate resources including for example spectrum, e.g., frequencybandwidth, allocations and/or transmission power allocations for CBSDs,e.g., CBRS tower base stations, managed by the SAS and based onestimations of the CBSDs' coverage area. In some embodiments, theresource allocation component 926 includes sub-components frequencybandwidth allocation component 928 and transmission power allocationcomponent 930. The frequency bandwidth allocation component 928 isconfigured to allocate frequency bandwidth for a CBSD, e.g., a CBRStower base station, based on the estimated coverage area of the CBSD.The transmission power allocation component 930 is configured toallocate transmission power to a CBSD based on the estimated coveragearea of the CBSD. The CBRS tower base station coverage area estimatorcomponent 934 estimates the coverage area of a CBRS tower base station.In some embodiments, CBRS tower base station coverage area estimatorcomponent 934 is a sub-component of the CBSD coverage area estimatorcomponent 910.

FIG. 10 is a drawing of an exemplary assembly of components 1000 whichmay be included in an exemplary CBRS CPE base station device, e.g.,exemplary CBRS CPE base station 300 of FIG. 3, in accordance with anexemplary embodiment. The components in the assembly of components 1000can, and in some embodiments are, implemented fully in hardware within aprocessor, e.g., processor 306, e.g., as individual circuits. Thecomponents in the assembly of components 1000 can, and in someembodiments are, implemented fully in hardware within the assembly ofhardware components 308, e.g., as individual circuits corresponding tothe different components. In other embodiments some of the componentsare implemented, e.g., as circuits, within processor 306 with othercomponents being implemented, e.g., as circuits within assembly ofcomponents 308, external to and coupled to the processor 306. As shouldbe appreciated the level of integration of components on the processorand/or with some components being external to the processor may be oneof design choice. Alternatively, rather than being implemented ascircuits, all or some of the components may be implemented in softwareand stored in the memory 312 of the CBRS CPE base station device 300,with the components controlling operation of CBRS CPE base stationdevice 300 to implement the functions corresponding to the componentswhen the components are executed by a processor e.g., processor 306. Insome such embodiments, the assembly of components 1000 is included inthe memory 312 as assembly of software components 314. In still otherembodiments, various components in assembly of components 1000 areimplemented as a combination of hardware and software, e.g., withanother circuit external to the processor providing input to theprocessor which then under software control operates to perform aportion of a component's function.

When implemented in software the components include code, which whenexecuted by a processor, e.g., processor 306, configure the processor toimplement the function corresponding to the component. In embodimentswhere the assembly of components 1000 is stored in the memory 312, thememory 312 is a computer program product comprising a computer readablemedium comprising code, e.g., individual code for each component, forcausing at least one computer, e.g., processor 306, to implement thefunctions to which the components correspond.

Completely hardware based or completely software based components may beused. However, it should be appreciated that any combination of softwareand hardware, e.g., circuit implemented components may be used toimplement the functions. As should be appreciated, the componentsillustrated in FIG. 10 control and/or configure the CBRS CPE basestation device 300 or elements therein such as the processor 306, toperform the functions of corresponding steps illustrated and/ordescribed in the method of one or more of the flowcharts, signalingdiagrams and/or described with respect to any of the Figures. Thus theassembly of components 1000 includes various components that performfunctions of corresponding one or more described and/or illustratedsteps of an exemplary method.

Assembly of components 1000 includes a control routines component 1002,Reference Signal Received Power level determinator 1004, acommunications component 1006, a resource allocation implementercomponent 1008, a message generator component 1010, a message processingcomponent 1012, a resource, e.g., spectrum, bandwidth, allocationdeterminator component 1014, a CBRS tower base station ranking byreceived reference signal strength component 1016, a primary CBRS towerbase station determinator component 1018, an auxiliary CBRS tower basestation determinator component 1020, a connection establishmentcomponent 1022, and a determination component 1024.

The control routines component 1002 controls the operation of the CBRSCPE base station. The RSRP level determinator component 1004 generates,measures and/or determines the Reference Signal Received Power levelfrom a reference signal received from a CBRS tower base station.

The communications component 1006 performs operations for handlingcommunications with other devices including generation, transmission,receiving, and processing messages, establishing connections, signalprocessing for different communications protocols. The resourceallocation implementer component 1008 handles operations for allocationof resources, e.g., spectrum usages for various devices being servicedby the CBRS CPE base stations as well as reservation and usage ofresources, e.g., spectrum, from primary and auxiliary CBRS tower basestations.

The message generator component 1010 generates messages, e.g., requestspectrum availability messages, spectrum reservation requests,acceptance, rejection and confirmation messages. In some embodiments,the message generator component 1010 is a sub-component ofcommunications component 1006.

The message processing component 1012 processes received messages, e.g.,requests for services and/or resources, e.g., spectrum, from userequipment devices or messages such as for example messages includingspectrum availability from CBRS tower base stations. In someembodiments, the message processing component 1012 is a sub-component ofthe communications component 1006.

The resource determinator allocation component 1014 determines the loadon the CBRS CPE base station from the devices it services, e.g., UEs atthe customer premises at which the CBRS CPE base station is located, theamount of spectrum allocated by primary and auxiliary CBRS tower basestations, the amount of additional spectrum required in excess of theamount of spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS tower base station,reserves spectrum from CBRS tower base stations for device to devicecommunications with the CBRS tower base stations, allocates spectrum towireless UE devices for communications between the UE devices and theCBRS CPE base station.

The CBRS tower base station ranking component 1016 ranks CBRS tower basestations from which the CBRS CPE base stations receives a referencesignal by the strength of the reference signal received in comparison tothe strength of the reference signals received from other CBRS towerbase stations.

The primary CBRS tower base station determinator component 1018 selectsor determines a CBRS tower base station to be a primary CBRS tower basestation for communications between the CBRS CPE base station and theCBRS network CBRS tower base stations. The primary CBRS tower basestation determination is typically based on the strength of thereference signal received from a plurality of the CBRS tower basestations with the CBRS tower base station with the strongest RSRP levelbeing selected as the primary CBRS tower base station even if it hasless spectrum available than other CBRS tower base stations.

The auxiliary CBRS tower base station determinator component 1020determines which CBRS tower base stations from which the CBRS CPE basestation received a reference signal will be designated as auxiliary CBRStower base stations.

The connection establishment component 1022 handles establishment andtermination of communications connections, e.g., device to devicecommunications connections between the CBRS tower base stations and theCBRS CPE base stations and the communications connections with devicesbeing serviced by the CBRS CPE base station. In some embodiments, theconnection establishment component 1022 is a sub-component ofcommunications component 1006.

The determination component 1024 makes various determinations for theCBRS CPE base station including determining: the amount of spectrum torequest from auxiliary CBRS tower base stations, the amount of loadcaused by the services requested by the devices the CBRS CPE basestation is servicing, the amount of spectrum to reserve from each CBRStower base station, and which CBRS tower base station has the strongestRSRP level. The determination component 1024 also determines in someembodiments the reference signal received power from received referencesignal transmissions, the amount of spectrum to reserve for controlsignaling with CBRS tower base stations and in some embodiments, whichCBRS tower base stations are to be selected as the primary CBRS towerbase station and which CBRS tower base stations are to be designated asauxiliary CBRS tower base stations.

FIG. 2, which comprises the combination of FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2Cillustrates an exemplary method 2000. FIG. 2A illustrates the steps ofthe first part of an exemplary method 2000 in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2B illustrates the steps ofthe second part of an exemplary method 2000 in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2C illustrates the steps ofthe third part of an exemplary method 2000 in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

For explanatory purposes the exemplary method 2000 will be explained inconnection with the exemplary CBRS network system 100 illustrated inFIG. 1 although it should be understand that the method may beimplemented using other systems and other system configurations thenthose illustrated in FIG. 1. In this example, N=4 so that there are fourCBRS tower base stations, M=3 so that there are 3 user equipment devicesbeing serviced by the CBRS CPE 1 base station 112, and X=3 so that thereare three customer premises and three CBRS CPE base stations beingserviced by the CBRS tower 4.

The method 2000 shown in FIG. 2 will now be discussed in detail. Themethod starts in start step 2002 shown on FIG. 2A with the devices insystem 100 being initialized and becoming operational. Operationproceeds from step 2002 to step 2004.

In step 2004, for each of a plurality of Citizen Broadband Radio Service(CBRS) tower base stations, frequency spectrum is assigned or allocatedby an SAS device with which the CBRS tower base station is registered.In the exemplary system 100, CBRS tower base station 1 102, CBRS towerbase station 2 104, CBRS tower base station 3 106 and CBRS tower basestation N 108 are registered with System Access System 110. The SAS 1110 allocates or assigns resources to each of the CBRS tower basestations 1 102, 2 104, 3 106 and N 108. The resources include frequencyspectrum (e.g., bandwidth) and power transmission levels. The SAS 1 110makes these allocations and/or assignments based on the geographicallocations of each of the CBRS tower base stations with the objectivebeing to efficiently allocate/assign the frequency spectrum to limit orminimize interference in the CBRS network. Operation proceeds from step2004 to step 2008.

In step 2008, each of the CBRS tower base stations of the plurality ofCBRS tower base stations transmits a reference signal to CBRS CPE basestations within the CBRS tower base station's coverage area. Operationproceeds from step 2008 to step 2010.

In step 2010, a CBRS CPE base station, e.g., CBRS CPE base station 1112, receives reference signals from two or more of the plurality ofCBRS tower base stations. In the example of CBRS CPE base station 1 112of system 100, it receives a reference signal from CBRS tower basestation 1 102, CBRS tower base station 2 104, CBRS tower base station 3106 and CBRS tower base station N 108. The CBRS CPE base station 2 152receives a reference signal from CBRS tower base station N 108. The CBRSCPE base station X 158 receives a reference signal from CBRS tower basestation N 108. Operation proceeds from step 2010 to step 2012.

In step 2012, the CBRS CPE base station, generates or measures areference signal received power (RSRP) level value for each referencesignal received from the plurality of CBRS tower base stations. FIG. 11illustrates a table 1100 showing exemplary RSRP level values in decibelmilliwatts (dBm) determined by the CBRS CPE base station 1 for each ofthe reference signals received from the CBRS tower base station 1 102,CBRS tower base station 2 104, CBRS tower base station 3 106, and CBRStower base station N 108 (N=4). The RSRP level being a measurement ofthe received power level of the reference signal sent by the CBRS towerbase station. The table 1100 further shows the CBRS tower base stationsranked from strongest to weakest RSRP level. In some embodiments, theRSRP value is determined or measured in the same manner in which LongTerm Evolution (LTE) RSRP is measured, e.g., by measuring a singleResource Element of a Resource Block. The RSRP is measured over a narrowbandwidth. The RSRP being an average received power of a single ResourceElement. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 36.214specification provides a formal definition for Reference Signal ReceivedPower for LTE. Operation proceeds from step 2012 to step 2014.

In step 2014, the CBRS CPE base station generates a list ranking thereceived RSRP signals from strongest (e.g., first) RSRP level value toweakest RSRP level value (e.g., last). The table 1100 in FIG. 11illustrates the ranking of the RSRP levels determined by the CBRS CPEbase station 1 112 for example values used in connection with system100. FIG. 11 will now be explained in further detail. FIG. 11illustrates an exemplary table 1100 showing CBRS tower base stations 1,2, 3, . . . , N (where N=4) ranked from strongest to weakest RSRP levelvalues as determined by CBRS CPE 1 112 of system 100. Row 1118 of table1100 illustrates labels identifying the information contained in eachcolumn and is not data. The entries in column 1102 of table 1100 includeCBRS tower base station identifiers for the CBRS tower base stationsfrom which the CBRS CPE base station 1 112 received a reference signal.The entries in column 1104 of table 1100 include ranking information forthe CBRS tower base station identified in the same row. The entries incolumn 1106 of table 1100 include the measured or determined ReferenceSignal Received Power level for the CBRS tower base station identifiedin the same row. The entries of row 1120 indicate CBRS tower basestation 1 102 has 1 ranking indicating it has the strongest referencesignal power level of the reference signals received by the CBRS CPEtower base station 1 112 and the RSRP level was −95 dBm. The entries ofrow 1122 indicate CBRS tower base station 2 104 was ranked by the CBRSCPE tower base station 1 112 as number 2 indicating it has the secondstrongest reference signal received power level and that the RSRP levelwas measured or determined by the CBRS CPE 1 112 to be −115 dBm. Theentries of row 1124 indicate CBRS tower base station 3 106 was ranked bythe CBRS CPE tower base station 1 112 as number 3 indicating it has thethird strongest reference signal received power level and that the RSRPlevel was measured or determined by the CBRS CPE 1 112 to be −117 dBm.The entries of row 1126 indicate CBRS tower base station N=4 108 wasranked by the CBRS CPE tower base station 1 112 as number 4 indicatingit has the fourth strongest reference signal received power level andthat the RSRP level was measured or determined by the CBRS CPE 1 112 tobe −120 dBm. The CBRS tower base station N=4 having the weakest RSRPlevel of the CBRS tower base stations from which the CBRS CPE basestation 1 112 received reference signals. Operation proceeds from step2014 to step 2016.

In step 2016, the CBRS CPE base station determines which of the CBRStower base stations is ranked with the strongest Reference SignalReceived Power (RSRP) level value. In this example, a review of table1100 shows that CBRS tower base station 1 102 with a RSRP value of −95dBm is the CBRS tower base station with the strongest Reference SignalReceived Power value ranking. Operation proceeds from step 2016 to step2018.

In step 2018, CBRS CPE base station selects the CBRS tower base stationdetermined to have strongest Reference Signal Received Power level valueas the CBRS CPE base station's primary CBRS tower base station. This isthe CBRS tower base station that CBRS CPE base station will establishits primary or main communications link with for sending and receivingcontrol signaling and data on an on-going basis. In some embodiments,the CBRS CPE base station registrars with the CBRS tower base stationindicating that the connection is the main or primary connection for theCBRS CPE base station and is to have an on-going connection not atemporary connection. In the example of system 100, the CBRS CPE basestation 1 112 selects the CBRS tower base station 1 102 to be itsprimary base station. FIG. 12 illustrates a table 1100′ in which column1108 entries indicate the designation of the CBRS tower base stationsand column 1110 entries indicate the status of the connection with theCBRS CPE base station 1 112. Table entry row 1120′, column 1108indicates that CBRS tower base station 1 102 is designated or selectedto be CBRS CPE base station 1 112's primary CBRS tower base station.Operation proceeds from step 2018 to step 2020.

In step 2020, the CBRS CPE base station designates one or more of thenon-selected CBRS tower base stations from which it has received areference signal as its auxiliary CBRS tower base stations. The CBRS CPEbase station typically designates all of the remaining CBRS tower basestations from which it is receiving a reference signal as auxiliary CBRStower base stations. The CBRS CPE base stations negotiates the temporaryuse of resources and services, e.g., frequency spectrum bandwidth forcommunications, with the auxiliary CBRS tower base stations on atemporary as needed basis. The auxiliary CBRS tower base stations aresometimes referred to as temporary CBRS tower base stations. In theexemplary system 100, the CBRS tower base station 2 104, CBRS tower basestation 3 106, and CBRS tower base station N 108 are designated as CBRSCPE base station 1 112's auxiliary CBRS tower base stations. Table 1100′of FIG. 12 illustrates in row 1122′, column 1108 that CBRS tower basestation 2 104 is designated as an auxiliary base station for CBRS CPEbase station 1 112. Table 1100′ of FIG. 12 illustrates in row 1124′,column 1108 that CBRS tower base station 3 106 is designated as anauxiliary base station for CBRS CPE base station 1 112. Table 1100′ ofFIG. 12 illustrates in row 1126′, column 1108 that CBRS tower basestation N=4 108 is designated as an auxiliary base station for CBRS CPEbase station 1 112. Operation proceeds from step 2020 to step 2022.

In step 2022, the CBRS CPE base station establishes a wirelesscommunications link connection with the CBRS tower base station selectedas the primary CBRS tower base station. In the exemplary system 100, theCBRS CPE 112 establish wireless communications link 122 with CBRS towerbase station 1 102. This is the CBRS CPE base station 1 112's mainwireless communications link with the CBRS network. The main connectionis not a temporary connection but is one that the CBRS CPE base station1 112 maintains for use with control and signaling information. The CBRSCPE base station 1 112 will keep this communications link connectionalive even when it uses auxiliary CBRS tower base stations on atemporary basis when the primary CBRS tower base station does not havesufficient spectrum resources to support the CBRS CPE base station'srequirements. Table 1100′ shown in FIG. 12 includes column 1110 whichindicates the CPE base station connection status with the various CBRStower base stations. Entry row 1120′, column 1110 shows that the CBRStower base station 1 102 designated as the CBRS CPE base station 1 112'sprimary CBRS tower base station 1 has a connection status of mainindicating that it is the CBRS CPE base station 1 112's mainnon-temporary connection to the CBRS network. While a wireless link isestablished with the primary CBRS tower base station and kept alive, theCBRS CPE base station establishes communications links with itsauxiliary CBRS tower base stations on a temporary as needed basisestablishing the wireless communications when needed and tearing downthe wireless communications link after determining the need no longerexists. Operation proceeds from step 2022 to step 2024.

In step 2024, the CBRS CPE base station determines, estimates ormeasures a radio frequency (RF) link capacity required for the one ormore subscriber devices, e.g., user devices, located at the customerpremises served by the CBRS base station and/or within the coverage areaof the CBRS CPE base station. The one or more users are typically allusers that the CBRS base station is servicing in its coverage area. Inthe exemplary system 100, the CBRS CPE base station 112 determines theresources, i.e., the RF link capacity, it will require for providingservices to user equipment devices UE 1 116, UE 2 118, and UE M 120which are located at the customer premises 1 114. In an embodiment theCBRS CPE base station determines the RF link capacity required based onone or more of the following: requests for physical resource block (PRB)resources from one or more subscriber devices being serviced, the typeof services being provided to the one or more subscriber devices, thephysical resource blocks being utilized by the one or more subscriberdevices being serviced, data reflecting past history reflecting linkcapacity and/or spectrum required to support the one or more subscriberdevices at the customer premises being serviced, quality of serviceagreements with the subscriber, or required for the service to beprovided. In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station makes anestimate of the RF link capacity required to support all of thesubscriber devices in its coverage area so as limit, minimize and/orprevent service interruptions. This includes adding an additional amountof capacity beyond what is measured or calculated to be sufficient.Operation proceeds from step 2024 to optional step 2028 shown on FIG. 2Bvia connection node A 2026 or if optional step 2028 is not implementedto step 2032.

In step 2028, the CBRS CPE base station requests anallocation/assignment of spectrum from the primary CBRS tower basestation. In some embodiments, step 2028 includes sub-step 2030. Insub-step 2030 the CBRS CPE base station determines an amount of spectrumto request be allocated based on the determined RF link capacityrequired to serve the one or more CBRS subscriber devices located at thecustomer premises served by the CBRS CPE base station. In the example ofsystem 100, the CBRS CPE base station 1 112 would request an amount ofspectrum be allocated which would provide enough link capacity forproviding services to user equipment devices UE 1 116, UE 2 118, and UEM 120 which are located at the customer premises 1 114. Operationproceeds from step 2028 to step 2032.

In step 2032, the CBRS CPE base station receives spectrum allocationinformation from the primary CBRS tower base station. The spectrumallocation information includes information about the frequency band andamount of frequency spectrum or bandwidth allocated by the primary CBRStower base station for communications between the CBRS CPE base stationand the primary CBRS tower base station. The primary CBRS tower basestation in some embodiments makes its determination of the amount ofspectrum or bandwidth to allocate the CBRS CPE base station based one ormore of the following: (i) the amount of spectrum the primary CBRS towerbase station has been allocated by the SAS 1 110, (ii) the amount ofspectrum requested by the CBRS CPE base station, (iii) the number ofCBRS CPE base stations for which it is the primary CBRS tower basestation, (iv) the amount of spectrum requested by other CBRS CPE basestations for it is serving as the primary CBRS tower base station, (v)the amount of spectrum requested by other CBRS CPE base stations forwhich it is serving as an auxiliary CBRS tower base station, (vi) theamount of spectrum already reserved by the CBRS tower base station forother purposes, (vii) the amount of spectrum requested by or reservedfor use by CBRS user equipment devices being serviced by the CBRS towerbase stations, and/or (viii) the amount of spectrum available to theCBRS tower base station. Operation proceeds from step 2032 to step 2034.

In step 2034, the CBRS CPE base station determines the CBRS RF linkcapacity between the CBRS CPE base station and the primary CBRS towerbase station, e.g., based on the amount of spectrum allocated by theprimary CBRS tower base station to the CBRS CPE base station. Operationproceeds from step 2034 to decision step 2036.

In decision step 2036, the CBRS CPE base station determines whether thedetermined RF link capacity between the primary CBRS tower base stationand the CBRS CPE base station is sufficient to serve the one or moreCBRS subscriber devices located at the customer premises served by theCBRS CPE base station. When the decision in step 2036 is yes that thedetermined RF link capacity between the primary CBRS tower base stationand the CBRS CPE base station is sufficient to serve the one or moreCBRS subscriber devices located at the customer premises served by theCBRS CPE base station operation proceeds from decision step 2036 to step2038. Otherwise, operation proceeds from decision step 2036 viaconnection node C 2041 to step 2052 shown on FIG. 2C.

In step 2038, the CBRS CPE base station utilizes the wireless connectionestablished with the primary CBRS tower base station and the spectrumallocated by the primary CBRS tower base station to provide services tothe one or more subscriber devices the CBRS CPE base station isservicing. Operation proceeds from step 2038 to step 2040.

In step 2040, the CBRS CPE base station monitors for a change in the RFlink capacity required to serve the one or more subscriber deviceslocated at the customer premises served by the CBRS CPE base station.For example, the CBRS CPE base station monitors for a change in its loadbased on for example the addition of subscriber devices that need to besupported or the type of service being requested, e.g., video on demandservices being requested which requires additional RF link capacity asmore data is required to be transferred to support the video on demandservice requested. Or, the change in load may be a reduction in loadbecause a video on demand service has ended or a subscriber device hasterminated services for example by ending a call. Operation proceedsfrom step 2040 via connection node B 2042 to step 2044 shown on FIG. 2C.

In step 2044, the CBRS CPE base station detects a change in the amountof RF link capacity between the CBRS CPE base station and the CBRS CPEtower base stations required by the CBRS CPE base station to service theone or more subscriber devices located at the customer premises servedby the CBRS CPE base station. Operation proceeds from step 2044 to step2046.

In step 2046, the CBRS CPE base station determines whether additionalspectrum between the CBRS tower base stations and the CBRS CPE basestation is required to serve the one or more subscriber devices locatedat the customer premises served by the CBRS CPE base station. DecisionStep 2046 includes sub-steps 2048 and 2050. When the determination isyes additional spectrum is required, operation proceeds from decisionsub-step 2048 of step 2046 to step 2052. When the determination is thatno additional spectrum is required, operation proceeds from decisionsub-step 2050 of step 2046 to step 2062.

In step 2052, the CBRS CPE base station determines an additional amountof spectrum between the auxiliary CBRS tower base stations and the CBRSCPE base station that is required for the CBRS CPE base station to havesufficient RF link capacity to serve the one or more subscriber devices,e.g., CBRS subscriber devices, located at the customer premises servedby the CBRS CPE base station. Operation proceeds from step 2052 to step2054.

In step 2054, the CBRS CPE base station reserves the additional amountof spectrum from one or more of the auxiliary CBRS tower base stationsbased on the auxiliary CBRS tower base stations' available spectrumand/or determined RSRP strength level. In one embodiment, the CBRS CPEbase station requests or polls each of the auxiliary CBRS tower basestations to determine the amount of spectrum that each CBRS tower basestation has available. The polling or requests are performed inaccordance with how the auxiliary CBRS tower base stations were rankedbased on the strength of the measured/determined RSRP power levelstarting with the strongest and ending with the weakest. The CBRS CPEbase station reserving the additional amount of spectrum with theauxiliary CBRS tower base station having the strongest RSRP power leveland the full amount of additional spectrum needed. In some embodiments,upon the identification of the auxiliary CBRS tower base station withthe strongest RSRP power level and an amount of spectrum equal to orexceeding the amount of additional spectrum needed, the CBRS tower basestation reserves the additional spectrum needed and ceases its pollingoperations of the other CBRS CPE tower base stations. In someembodiments, when no single auxiliary CBRS tower base station has thefull amount of additional spectrum available, the CBRS CPE tower basestation, reserves the available spectrum from a plurality of auxiliaryCBRS tower base stations. In some such embodiments, the CBRS CPE basestation reserves the available spectrum from each of the polledauxiliary CBRS tower base stations in the order they are polled untilthe additional amount of spectrum needed has been reserved. As theauxiliary CBRS tower base station are polled from strongest RSRP powerlevel to weakest, the result is that available spectrum is reserved fromthe strongest RSRP power level auxiliary CBRS tower base stations byranking. In another embodiment, the CBRS CPE tower base station reservesthe available spectrum from auxiliary CBRS tower base stations so thatthe least number of auxiliary CBRS tower base stations need to beutilized thereby reducing the overhead of communicating with more thanthe minimum number of auxiliary CBRS tower base stations necessary. Insuch an example while the 1st auxiliary CBRS tower base station may havethe strongest RSRP power level of the auxiliary CBRS tower basestations, the CBRS CPE base station may choose the second weakest andthe weakest RSRP power level auxiliary CBRS tower base stations becausethe choice results in the use of only two auxiliary tower base stationswhen the use of the strongest RSRP level auxiliary CBRS tower basestation would result in more than two auxiliary tower base stations toreserve the amount of additional spectrum needed. In some embodiments,instead of requesting or polling the auxiliary CBRS tower base stationsprovide the amount of spectrum they have available, the auxiliary CBRStower base stations periodically post the amount of spectrum they haveavailable. In some such embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station can stillrequest from the auxiliary CBRS tower base stations their spectrumavailability. In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station can alsorequest whether its primary CBRS tower base station has additionalspectrum available beyond what it has already allocated to the CBRS CPEbase station. In such cases, the CBRS CPE base station makes the requestto the primary CBRS tower base station and reserves whatever additionalspectrum is available before performing step 2046. Operation proceedsfrom step 2054 to step 2056.

In step 2056, the CBRS CPE base station establishes temporaryconnections with each of the one or more auxiliary CBRS tower basestations with which addition spectrum was reserved. Operation proceedsfrom step 2056 to step 2058.

In step 2058, the CBRS CPE base station utilizes the reserved spectrumof each of the established wireless connections to the one or moreauxiliary CBRS tower base stations to provide services to the one ormore subscriber devices the CBRS CPE base station is servicing.Operation proceeds from step 2058 via connection node D 2060 to step2040 shown on FIG. 2B where the method continues with the CBRS CPE basestation monitoring for a change in RF link capacity required to servethe one or more subscriber devices located at the customer premisesserved by the CBRS CPE base station.

Returning to step 2062 and the situation in which a determination thatadditional spectrum is not required, the CBRS CPE base stationdetermines what if any of the reserved auxiliary CBRS tower base stationspectrum is no longer required by the CBRS CPE base station to serve theone or more subscriber devices located at the customer premises beingserviced by the CBRS CPE base station. Operation proceeds from step 2062to step 2064.

In step 2064, the CBRS CPE base station releases the reserved auxiliarytower base station spectrum that it determined in step 2062 it no longerrequires, e.g., to serve the subscriber devices located at the customerpremises it is serving. When all of the reserved spectrum with aparticular auxiliary CBRS tower base station has been released by theCBRS CPE base station, the temporary connection between the CBRS CPEbase station and that particular auxiliary CBRS tower base station istom down or terminated. The particular auxiliary CBRS tower base stationremains available to the CBRS CPE base station should the situationchange and additional spectrum once again be required. Operationproceeds from step 2064 via connection node D 2060 to step 2040 shown onFIG. 2B wherein the steps of the method continue as previouslydescribed.

FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary method/signaling diagram 1500 showingexemplary signaling between a CBRS CPE base station 1502 and one of itsauxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 to request and reserve spectrum.The CBRS CPE base station 1502 in some embodiments is the CBRS CPE basestation 1 112 of system 100 and the auxiliary CBRS tower base station1504 in such embodiments is one of the auxiliary CBRS tower basestations 2 104, 3 106, . . . , N 108.

The method begins in step 1508 wherein after determining that additionalspectrum is required beyond the spectrum made available by the primaryCBRS tower base station, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 generates andsends spectrum availability request message 1510 to auxiliary CBRS towerbase station 1504. Operation proceeds from step 1508 to step 1512.

In step 1512, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 receives andprocesses the spectrum availability request message 1510. Operationproceeds from step 1512 to step 1514.

In step 1514, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 determines theamount of available spectrum it has available which in this example is 5MHz and generates and sends spectrum availability response message 1516to CBRS CPE base station 1502 in response to request message 1510. Theresponse message 1516 includes the information that the auxiliary CBRStower base station has 5 MHz worth of capacity available. Operationproceeds from step 1514 to step 1518.

In step 1518, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 receives and processes theresponse message 1516. Operation proceeds from step 1518 to step 1520.

In step 1520, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 determines that it wants toreserve the 5 MHz of available spectrum and generates and sends toauxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 message 1522 which indicates anacceptance and/or request to reserve the available 5 MHz worth ofspectrum. Operation proceeds from step 1520 to step 1524.

In step 1524, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 receives andprocesses the message 1522. Operation proceeds from step 1524 to step1526.

In step 1526, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 generates andsends message 1528 to CBRS CPE base station 1502 which confirms thereceipt of message 1522 confirming the acceptance and/or request toreserve the 5 MHz of available spectrum. Operation proceeds from step1526 to step 1530.

In step 1530, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 receives and processes theresponse message 1528 which acknowledges and confirms the acceptance ofthe reservation of the 5 MHz spectrum. Operation proceeds from step 1530to step 1532.

In step 1532, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 makes a determination ofhow long it will reserve the 5 MHz available spectrum for and generatesand sends message 1534 to auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 withthe message 1534 indicating that it is reserving the 5 MHz spectrum ofthe auxiliary CBRS tower base 1504 for 1 hour. Operation proceeds fromstep 1532 to step 1536.

In step 1536, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 receives andprocesses the message 1534. Operation proceeds from step 1536 to step1538.

In step 1538, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 utilizes the reserved 5 MHzof spectrum to provide services to the user equipment devices it isservicing, e.g., by receiving and/or transmitting or exchanging dataover the communications link established with auxiliary CBRS tower basestation 1504. Operation proceeds from step 1538 to step 1540.

In step 1540, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 determines that it nolonger needs the reserved spectrum even though the 1 hour for which itwas reserved has not yet expired and generates and sends message 1542 toauxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504. Operation proceeds from step1540 to step 1544.

In step 1544, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 receives andprocesses the message 1542.

In step 1546, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 generates and sends message1548 to auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 releasing the 5 MHz ofspectrum which had been reserved by the auxiliary CBRS tower basestation 1504 for use by CBRS CPE base station 1502. Operation proceedsfrom step 1546 to step 1550.

In step 1550, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 receives andprocesses the message 1548 which indicates that the 5 MHz of reservedspectrum has been released. Operation proceeds from step 1550 to step1552.

In step 1552, the auxiliary tower base station 1504 generates and sendsan acknowledgement or confirmation message 1554 to CBRS CPE base station1502 confirming or acknowledging that the 5 MHz of spectrum previouslyreserved for CBRS CPE base station 1502 has been released, i.e., isavailable for use by other devices and for other purposes. Operationproceeds from step 1552 to step 1556. In step 1556, the CBRS CPE basestation 1502 receives and processes the message 1554.

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary method/signaling diagram 1600 showingexemplary signaling between a CBRS CPE base station 1502 and one of itsauxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 in which the CBRS CPE basestation 1502 requests available spectrum capacity and then rejects theavailable spectrum of the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504.

The CBRS CPE base station 1502 in some embodiments is the CBRS CPE basestation 1 112 of system 100 and the auxiliary CBRS tower base station1504 in such embodiments is one of the auxiliary CBRS tower basestations 2 104, 3 106, . . . , N 108.

The method begins in step 1608 wherein after determining that additionalspectrum is required beyond the spectrum made available by the primaryCBRS tower base station, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 generates andsends spectrum availability request message 1610 to auxiliary CBRS towerbase station 1504. Operation proceeds from step 1608 to step 1612.

In step 1612, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 receives andprocesses the spectrum availability request message 1610. Operationproceeds from step 1612 to step 1614.

In step 1614, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 determines theamount of available spectrum it has available which in this example is 5MHz and generates and sends spectrum availability response message 1616to CBRS CPE base station 1502 in response to request message 1610. Theresponse message 1616 includes the information that the auxiliary CBRStower base station 1504 has 5 MHz worth of capacity available. Operationproceeds from step 1614 to step 1618.

In step 1618, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 receives and processes theresponse message 1616. Operation proceeds from step 1618 to step 1620.

In step 1620, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 determines that it does notwant to reserve the 5 MHz of available spectrum and generates and sendsto auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 message 1622 which indicates arejection of the available 5 MHz worth of spectrum. One reason forrejecting the available spectrum is that there is an insufficient amountof spectrum available at the auxiliary CBRS tower base station whileanother auxiliary CBRS tower base station has reported that it has asufficient amount of spectrum available to meet the additional spectrumrequirements of the CBRS CPE base station. Operation proceeds from step1620 to step 1624.

In step 1624, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 receives andprocesses the rejection message 1622 indicating that the CBRS CPE basestation 1502 does not want to reserve the 5 MHz of spectrum available atthe auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504. Operation proceeds from step1624 to step 1626.

In step 1626, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 generates andsends message 1628 to CBRS CPE base station 1502 indicating confirmationof the receipt of rejection message 1622. Operation proceeds from step1626 to steps 1630 and 1632. In step 1630, the CBRS CPE base station1502 receives and processes the confirmation message 1628.

In step 1632, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 1504 generates andsends message 1634 to CBRS CPE base station 1502 indicating that the 5MHz of available spectrum has not been reserved and provides a time whenthe CBRS CPE base station 1502 can check back for available spectrumwhich in this example is in an hour. Operation proceeds from step 1632to step 1636.

In step 1636, the CBRS CPE base station 1502 receives and processes themessage 1634 indicating that the 5 MHz of available spectrum at theauxiliary CBRS tower base 1504 has not been reserved and when the CBRSCPE base station 1502 should check back for available spectrum.

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary method 1700 of reserving spectrum fromauxiliary CBRS tower base stations in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention.

The method begins in start step 1702. Operation proceeds from start step1702 to step 1704.

In step 1704, the CBRS CPE base station determines the amount ofadditional spectrum required beyond the amount of spectrum provided bythe primary CBRS tower base station. In some embodiments, step 1704 isoptional as the amount of additional spectrum required has already beendetermined and is made available for use in the method 1700. Operationproceeds from step 1704 to step 1706.

In step 1706 for Reference Signal Received Power Strength Level P=2 toN, N being the integer number of CBRS Tower Base Stations from which theCBRS CPE base station received a reference signal (e.g., auxiliary CBRStower base stations) DO sub-steps 1708, 1710, 1712, 1714, 1716, 1718,1720 until the condition is satisfied, the condition being that noadditional spectrum is required to be reserved. The RSRP strength levelis the ranking of the RSRP level by the CBRS CPE base station. Forexample, when P=2 a review of the FIG. 11 auxiliary CBRS tower basestation rankings indicate that the CBRS tower base station 2 104 isranked 2 and would be the auxiliary CBRS tower base station referencedin the first loop of the DO until routine in step 1706.

In sub-step 1708, the CBRS CPE base station requests spectrumavailability from the CBRS tower ranked as having the RSRP level P.Operation proceeds from sub-step 1708 to sub-step 1710.

In sub-step 1710, the CBRS tower base station having the RSRP strengthlevel P ranking receives the request from the CBRS CPE base station.Operation proceeds from step 1710 to step 1712.

In step 1712, the CBRS tower base station having the RSRP strength levelP ranking determines its available spectrum. Operation proceeds fromstep 1712 to step 1714.

In step 1714, transmit from the CBRS tower base station having the RSRPstrength level P ranking to the CBRS CPE base station its availablespectrum in MHz, e.g., 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, or 20 MHz ofavailable spectrum. Operation proceeds from step 1714 to step 1716.

In step 1716, the CBRS CPE base station receives from the CBRS towerbase station having the RSRP strength level P ranking informationidentifying the available spectrum at the CBRS tower base station havingthe RSRP strength level P ranking. Operation proceeds from step 1716 tostep 1718.

In step 1718, the CBRS CPE base station reserves the available spectrumfrom the CBRS tower base station having the RSRP strength level Pranking. Operation proceeds from step 1718 to step 1720.

In step 1720, the CBRS CPE base station determines whether the CBRS CPEbase station still requires additional spectrum. When the determinationis yes in sub-step 1722 operation proceeds from step 1720 to step 1708with beginning of the next loop and P having the value of 3.

When in step 1720, the determination is that no addition spectrum isrequired because the additional spectrum reserved now meets or exceedsthe spectrum required operation proceeds from sub-step 1724 to end step1726 wherein the method 1700 ends.

Additionally, operation will proceed from step 1706 to step 1726 whenthe DO loop completes for P=N even if additional spectrum is determinedto be required as there is no additional spectrum available from theauxiliary CBRS tower base stations.

Table 1300 in FIG. 13 illustrates an example of spectrum reservationwhen the spectrum required by the CPE CBRS base station is 45 MHz andthe main wireless link connection with the primary CBRS tower basestation provides 20 MHz, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 2 104provides 20 MHz on a temporary connection, and the auxiliary CBRS towerbase station 3 106 provides 10 MHz on a temporary connection so that theCPE CBRS base station has 50 MHz of spectrum available which exceeds the45 MHz it requires. In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station willonly reserve a portion of the available spectrum of the auxiliary CBRStower base station reported as available such as for example 5 MHzinstead of the 10 MHz reserved and provided by CBRS tower base station 3106 shown in FIG. 13. In FIG. 13 column 1110′ illustrates the connectionstatus and spectrum allocated or reserved by the CBRS tower basestations for the CBRS CPE base station.

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary method 1800 of reserving spectrum fromauxiliary CBRS tower base stations in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention.

The method begins in start step 1802. Operation proceeds from start step1802 to step 1804.

In step 1804, the CBRS CPE base station determines the amount ofadditional spectrum required beyond the amount of spectrum provided bythe primary CBRS tower base station. In some embodiments, step 1804 isoptional as the amount of additional spectrum required has already beendetermined and is made available for use in the method 1800. Operationproceeds from step 1804 to step 1806.

In step 1806, the CBRS CPE base station determines the amount ofspectrum each of its auxiliary CBRS tower base stations has available.Operation proceeds from step 1806 to step 1808.

In step 1808, the CBRS CPE base station reserves an amount of spectrumequal to or exceeding the determined amount of additional spectrumrequired beyond the spectrum provided by the primary CBRS tower basestation from one or more of the auxiliary CBRS tower base stations. Insome embodiments, step 1808 includes sub-step 1810.

In sub-step 1810, the CBRS CPE base station determines which of theauxiliary CBRS tower base stations to reserve spectrum from based on afirst criteria and a second criteria. The first criteria being tominimize the number of connections the CBRS CPE base station needs tomake with CBRS tower base stations. The second criteria being to selectCBRS base stations based on reference signal received power level with apreference given to CBRS tower base stations having stronger receivedreference signal power levels. The first criteria having priority overthe second criteria.

Table 1400 of FIG. 14 illustrates an example of the resultingapplication of method 1800. The table 1400 is similar to the table 1300with the addition of column 1109 which includes the available spectrumfor the corresponding CBRS tower base station and column 1110″ showing adifferent CPE connection status and allocated spectrum. In the exampleshown in FIG. 14, the CBRS CPE base station requires 50 MHz of spectrum.The primary CBRS tower base station 1 has allocated 20 MHz of spectrum.The auxiliary CBRS tower base station 2 has 10 MHz of spectrumavailable, the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 3 has 10 MHz ofspectrum available and the auxiliary CBRS tower base station 4 has 20MHz of spectrum available. The amount of additional spectrum neededbeyond the 20 MHz of spectrum provided by the primary CBRS tower basestation 1 is 30 MHz. The CBRS CPE base station determines that minimumnumber of connections to CBRS tower base stations that will provided theneeded spectrum is three. Two different combinations will provide theneeded spectrum. The first combination includes the primary CBRS towerbase station 1 20 MHz, the auxiliary CBRS tower base 2 10 MHz, and theauxiliary CBRS tower base station 4 20 MHz. The second combinationincludes the primary CBRS tower base station 1 20 MHz, the auxiliaryCBRS tower base station 3 10 MHz, and the auxiliary CBRS tower basestation 4 20 MHz. The CBRS CPE tower base station determines to use thefirst combination as the RSRP power level of auxiliary CBRS tower basestation 2 is −115 dBm which is stronger than the RSRP power level ofauxiliary CBRS tower base station 3 which is −117 dBm. Operationproceeds from step 1808 to step 1812. In step 1812, the method 1800ends.

In various embodiments of the present invention, the CBRS CPE basestation estimates and reserves spectrum from auxiliary CBRS tower basestations so that it has sufficient spectrum to support all deviceslocated at the customer premises it is serving at all times.

In some embodiments, the CBRS tower base stations can only allocatefixed amounts of resources to a CBRS CPE base station, e.g., 1.4 MHz, 3MHz, 5 MHz, 10 M Hz or 20 M Hz.

In some embodiments, the CBRS CPE base station utilizes the wirelesscommunications link connection with the primary CBRS tower base stationfor control signaling and the CBRS tower base station reserves an amountof spectrum for the exchange of control signals between the primary CBRStower base station and the CBRS CPE base station.

In some embodiments, the information in the tables illustrated in FIGS.11, 12, 13, and 14 are stored in the memory of the CBRS CPE basestation.

Various exemplary embodiments illustrating different features of thepresent invention will now be discussed.

LIST OF A SET OF EXEMPLARY NUMBERED METHOD EMBODIMENTS Method Embodiment1

A method of operating a Citizens Broadband Radio Service CustomerPremise Equipment (CBRS CPE) base station in a CBRS network, the methodcomprising: receiving, by the CBRS CPE base station, over the air fromeach of a plurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed WirelessAccess (CBRS FWA) tower base stations a reference signal; selecting,based on the strength of each of the received reference signals, aprimary CBRS FWA tower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA towerbase stations; establishing, by the CBRS CPE base station, a wirelesscommunications link connection with the CBRS FWA tower base stationselected as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station; reserving, by theCBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum for communicating with oneor more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.

Method Embodiment 2

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein the CBRS CPE base station islocated at a customer premises which does not include a wired or opticalbroadband service connection.

Method Embodiment 3

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein user equipment deviceslocated at the customer premises at which the CBRS CPE base station islocated are only provided broadband services through wirelesscommunications, said wireless communications including CBRS networkwireless communications.

Method Embodiment 4

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein the CBRS CPE base station islocated at a customer premises which has no landline connection.

Method Embodiment 5

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein the CBRS CPE base station islocated at a customer premises which has no landline connection overwhich broadband services can be provided.

Method Embodiment 6

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein one or more of the pluralityof CBRS FWA tower base stations are simultaneously operated as primaryCBRS CPE base stations and auxiliary CBRS CPE base stations with regardto different additional CBRS CPE base stations located within theircoverage area.

Method Embodiment 7

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein the plurality of CBRS FWAtower base stations have overlapping coverage areas.

Method Embodiment 8

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein selecting, based on thestrength of each of the received reference signals a primary CBRS FWAtower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower stationsincludes: (i) determining, by the CBRS CPE base station, a ReferenceSignal Received Power (RSRP) level value for each reference signalreceived from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; and (ii)selecting, by the CBRS CPE base station, the CBRS FWA base stationhaving the strongest RSRP level value as the primary CBRS FWA tower basestation.

Method Embodiment 9

The method of method embodiment 8, wherein one or more of the CBRS FWAbase stations which were not selected as the primary CBRS FWA tower basestation are designated by the CBRS CPE base station as auxiliary CBRSFWA tower base stations.

Method Embodiment 10

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein the CBRS CPE base stationprovides broadband services to one or more user equipment deviceslocated at a customer premises.

Method Embodiment 11

The method of method embodiment 10, wherein at least a first portion ofCBRS CPE base station is located within a building at the customerpremises, said CPE CBRS base station including a second portion, saidsecond portion including an antenna or antenna array mounted at anelevated position at the customers premises, said antenna or antennaarray being used to wirelessly communicate with said primary CBRS FWAbase station and said one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA base stations.

Method Embodiment 12

The method of method embodiment 10, wherein said antenna or said antennaarray is mounted on the roof of the building at the customer premises oron a pole outside the building at the customer premises.

Method Embodiment 13

The method of method embodiment 11, wherein said CBRS CPE base stationincludes a plurality of communications interfaces, said plurality ofcommunication interfaces including a first wireless communicationsinterface for communicating with CBRS FWA base stations and a secondwireless communications interface for communicating with user equipmentdevices.

Method Embodiment 14

The method of method embodiment 10 further comprising: prior toreserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, spectrum for communicating withone or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations, determining, by theCBRS CPE base station, whether an amount of spectrum allocated by theprimary CBRS FWA base station to the CBRS CPE base station for device todevice communications between the CBRS CPE base station and the CBRS FWAbase station is sufficient for providing the broadband services to theone or more user equipment devices located at the customer premises; andwhen said amount of spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWA basestation to the CBRS CPE base station for device to device communicationsbetween the CBRS CPE base station and the CBRS FWA base station is notsufficient for providing the broadband services to the one or more userequipment devices located at the customer premises determining an amountof additional spectrum required for providing the broadband services tothe one or more user equipment devices located at the customer premises.

Method Embodiment 15

The method of method embodiment 14, wherein the amount of spectrumreserved, by the CBRS CPE base station, for communicating with one ormore auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations is an amount which equals orexceeds the amount of additional spectrum required for providing thebroadband services to the one or more user equipment devices located atthe customer premises.

Method Embodiment 16

The method of method embodiment 14, wherein said determining, by theCBRS CPE base station, whether an amount of spectrum allocated by theprimary CBRS FWA base station to the CBRS CPE base station for device todevice communications between the CBRS CPE base station and the CBRS FWAbase station is sufficient for providing the broadband services to theone or more user equipment devices located at the customer premisesincludes the CBRS CPE base station measuring a load that is caused byserving the user equipment devices located at the customers premisesand/or within the coverage area of the CBRS CPE base station.

Method Embodiment 17

The method of method embodiment 14 further comprising: establishing, bythe CBRS CPE base station, temporary wireless communications linkconnections with the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations;and utilizing said reserved spectrum for providing said broadbandservices to the one or more user equipment devices located at thecustomer premises.

Method Embodiment 18

The method of method embodiment 17 further comprising: determining, bythe CBRS CPE base station, when said reserved spectrum is no longerneeded to support the broadband services being provided by the CBRS CPEbase station to the user equipment devices located at the customerpremises; releasing, by the CBRS CPE base station, reserved spectrumdetermined to no longer be needed; terminating, by the CBRS CPE basestation, the temporary wireless communications link connections with theone or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations when said reservedspectrum is released.

Method Embodiment 19

The method of method embodiment 1, wherein reserving, by the CBRS CPEbase station, an amount of spectrum for communicating with one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations includes: requesting from one ormore of the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations whatspectrum each CBRS FWA tower base station has available.

Method Embodiment 20

The method of method embodiment 19, further comprising: determiningwhich of the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations toreserve available spectrum from based on: (i) the amount of additionalspectrum to be reserved, (ii) an amount of spectrum reported as beingavailable at the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station, and (iii) thestrength of the reference signal received from the auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base station.

Method Embodiment 21

The method of method embodiment 19 further comprising: monitoring, bythe CBRS CPE base station, for a change in a radio frequency linkcapacity required to serve the one or more user equipment deviceslocated at the customer premises; and upon detecting a change in theradio frequency link capacity required to serve the one or more userequipment devices located at the customer premises; determining if anamount of additional spectrum in excess of the amount of spectrumallocated by the primary CBRS tower base station is required; and whenan amount of additional spectrum in excess of the amount of spectrumallocated by the primary CBRS tower base station is determined to berequired: (i) requesting, by the CBRS CPE base station, one or more ofthe auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations provide informationindicating an amount of spectrum the corresponding auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base station has available; (ii) reserving available spectrum fromone or more of the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stationsbased on the amount of additional spectrum required, the amount ofspectrum available, and the strength of the RSRP level value of thereference signal received from the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations.

Method Embodiment 22

The method of method embodiment 1 further comprising: prior toreserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum forcommunicating with the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestations, ranking, by the CBRS CPE base station, the plurality of CBRSFWA base stations from strongest RSRP level value to weakest RSRP levelvalue; requesting, by the CBRS CPE base station, spectrum availabilityfrom the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA base stations; and selectingsaid one or more CBRS FWA base stations from which to reserve an amountof spectrum based on: (i) amount of spectrum to be reserved and (ii)auxiliary CBRS FWA base station's spectrum availability and RSRPranking.

LIST OF A SET OF EXEMPLARY NUMBERED APPARATUS EMBODIMENTS ApparatusEmbodiment 1

A Citizens Broadband Radio Service Customer Premise Equipment (CBRS CPE)base station comprising: memory; a first wireless input/output interfacethat communicates with a plurality of Citizens Broadband Radio ServiceFixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower base stations; a second wirelessinput/output interface that communicates with user equipment devices; aprocessor that controls the CBRS CPE base station to: receive, by thefirst wireless input/output interface, over the air from each of aplurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed Wireless Access(CBRS FWA) tower base stations a reference signal; select, based on thestrength of each of the received reference signals, a primary CBRS FWAtower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations;establish, by the CBRS CPE base station, a wireless communications linkconnection with the CBRS FWA tower base station selected as the primaryCBRS FWA tower base station; reserve, by the CBRS CPE base station, anamount of spectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base stations.

Apparatus Embodiment 2

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein the CBRSCPE base station is located at a customer premises which does notinclude a wired or optical broadband service connection.

Apparatus Embodiment 3

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein userequipment devices located at the customer premises at which the CBRS CPEbase station is located are only provided broadband services throughwireless communications, said wireless communications including CBRSnetwork wireless communications.

Apparatus Embodiment 4

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein the CBRSCPE base station is located at a customer premises which has no landlineconnection.

Apparatus Embodiment 5

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein the CBRSCPE base station is located at a customer premises which has no landlineconnection over which broadband services can be provided.

Apparatus Embodiment 6

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein one or moreof the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations are simultaneouslyoperated as primary CBRS CPE base stations and auxiliary CBRS CPE basestations with regard to different additional CBRS CPE base stationslocated within their coverage area.

Apparatus Embodiment 7

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein theplurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations have overlapping coverageareas.

Apparatus Embodiment 8

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein saidselection, based on the strength of each of the received referencesignals of the primary CBRS FWA tower base station from the plurality ofCBRS FWA tower stations includes: (i) determining, by the CBRS CPE basestation, a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) level value for eachreference signal received from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower basestations; and (ii) selecting, by the CBRS CPE base station, the CBRS FWAbase station having the strongest RSRP level value as the primary CBRSFWA tower base station.

Apparatus Embodiment 9

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 8, wherein one or moreof the CBRS FWA base stations which were not selected as the primaryCBRS FWA tower base station are designated by the CBRS CPE base stationas auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.

Apparatus Embodiment 10

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein theprocessor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to providebroadband services to one or more user equipment devices located at acustomer premises.

Apparatus Embodiment 11

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 10 further comprising:a first portion and a second portion; said first portion including saidprocessor and said memory, said first portion of the CBRS CPE basestation being located within a building at the customer premises, saidsecond portion of the CBRS CPE base station including an antenna orantenna array mounted at an elevated position at the customers premises,said antenna or antenna array being used to wirelessly communicate withsaid primary CBRS FWA base station and said one or more auxiliary CBRSFWA base stations, said second portion being coupled to said firstportion.

Apparatus Embodiment 12

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 10, wherein saidantenna or said antenna array is mounted on the roof of the building atthe customer premises or on a pole outside the building at the customerpremises.

Apparatus Embodiment 13

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 11 further comprising:a Wi-Fi communications interface for communicating with Wi-Fi userequipment devices; and an Ethernet communications interface forcommunicating with user equipment devices over a local area network.

Apparatus Embodiment 14

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 10 wherein saidprocessor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to: determine, bythe CBRS CPE base station, whether an amount of spectrum allocated bythe primary CBRS FWA base station to the CBRS CPE base station fordevice to device communications between the CBRS CPE base station andthe CBRS FWA base station is sufficient for providing the broadbandservices to the one or more user equipment devices located at thecustomer premises prior to reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station,spectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations; and when said amount of spectrum allocated by the primaryCBRS FWA base station to the CBRS CPE base station for device to devicecommunications between the CBRS CPE base station and the CBRS FWA basestation is not sufficient for providing the broadband services to theone or more user equipment devices located at the customer premisesdetermining an amount of additional spectrum required for providing thebroadband services to the one or more user equipment devices located atthe customer premises.

Apparatus Embodiment 15

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 14, wherein the amountof spectrum reserved, by the CBRS CPE base station, for communicatingwith one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations is an amountwhich equals or exceeds the amount of additional spectrum required forproviding the broadband services to the one or more user equipmentdevices located at the customer premises.

Apparatus Embodiment 16

The CBRS CPE of apparatus embodiment 14, wherein said determining, bythe CBRS CPE base station, whether an amount of spectrum allocated bythe primary CBRS FWA base station to the CBRS CPE base station fordevice to device communications between the CBRS CPE base station andthe CBRS FWA base station is sufficient for providing the broadbandservices to the one or more user equipment devices located at thecustomer premises includes the CBRS CPE base station measuring a loadthat is caused by serving the user equipment devices located at thecustomers premises and/or within the coverage area of the CBRS CPE basestation.

Apparatus Embodiment 17

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 14, wherein saidprocessor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to: establishtemporary wireless communications link connections with the one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations; and utilize said reservedspectrum for providing said broadband services to the one or more userequipment devices located at the customer premises.

Apparatus Embodiment 18

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 17 wherein saidprocessor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to: determine whensaid reserved spectrum is no longer needed to support the broadbandservices being provided by the CBRS CPE base station to the userequipment devices located at the customer premises; release reservedspectrum determined to no longer be needed; terminate the temporarywireless communications link connections with the one or more auxiliaryCBRS FWA tower base stations when said reserved spectrum is released.

Apparatus Embodiment 19

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1, wherein said toreserve an amount of spectrum for communicating with one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations includes: requesting from one ormore of the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations whatspectrum each CBRS FWA tower base station has available.

Apparatus Embodiment 20

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 19, wherein saidprocessor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to: determine whichof the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations to reserveavailable spectrum from based on: (i) the amount of additional spectrumto be reserved, (ii) an amount of spectrum reported as being availableat the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station, and (iii) the strength ofthe reference signal received from the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestation.

Apparatus Embodiment 21

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 19 wherein saidprocessor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to: monitor for achange in a radio frequency link capacity required to serve the one ormore user equipment devices located at the customer premises; and upondetecting a change in the radio frequency link capacity required toserve the one or more user equipment devices located at the customerpremises, determine if an amount of additional spectrum in excess of theamount of spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS tower base station isrequired; and when an amount of additional spectrum in excess of theamount of spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS tower base station isdetermined to be required: (i) requesting, by the CBRS CPE base station,one or more of the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations provideinformation indicating an amount of spectrum the corresponding auxiliaryCBRS FWA tower base station has available; (ii) reserving availablespectrum from one or more of the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations based on the amount of additional spectrum required, theamount of spectrum available, and the strength of the RSRP level valueof the reference signal received from the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base stations.

Apparatus Embodiment 22

The CBRS CPE base station of apparatus embodiment 1 wherein saidprocessor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to: rank, by theCBRS CPE base station, the plurality of CBRS FWA base stations fromstrongest RSRP level value to weakest RSRP level value prior toreserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum forcommunicating with the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestations; request, by the CBRS CPE base station, spectrum availabilityfrom the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA base stations; and select saidone or more CBRS FWA base stations from which to reserve an amount ofspectrum based on: (i) amount of spectrum to be reserved and (ii)auxiliary CBRS FWA base station's spectrum availability and RSRPranking.

LIST OF EXEMPLARY NUMBERED COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM EMBODIMENTS ComputerReadable Medium Embodiment 1

A non-transitory computer readable medium including a first set ofcomputer executable instructions which when executed by a processor of aCitizens Broadband Radio Service Customer Premise Equipment (CBRS CPE)base station cause the CBRS CPE base station to perform the steps of:receiving over the air from each of a plurality of Citizens BroadbandRadio Service Fixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower base stations areference signal; selecting based on the strength of each of thereceived reference signals, a primary CBRS FWA tower base station fromthe plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; establishing a wirelesscommunications link connection with the CBRS FWA tower base stationselected as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station; reserving an amountof spectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 2

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 1,wherein the CBRS CPE base station is located at a customer premiseswhich does not include a wired or optical broadband service connection.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 3

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 1,wherein user equipment devices located at the customer premises at whichthe CBRS CPE base station is located are only provided broadbandservices through wireless communications, said wireless communicationsincluding CBRS network wireless communications.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 4

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 1,wherein the CBRS CPE base station is located at a customer premiseswhich has no landline connection.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 5

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 1,wherein the CBRS CPE base station is located at a customer premiseswhich has no landline connection over which broadband services can beprovided.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 6

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium 1, wherein oneor more of the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations aresimultaneously operated as primary CBRS CPE base stations and auxiliaryCBRS CPE base stations with regard to different additional CBRS CPE basestations located within their coverage area.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 7

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 1,wherein the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations have overlappingcoverage areas.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 8

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 1,wherein said selection, based on the strength of each of the receivedreference signals of the primary CBRS FWA tower base station from theplurality of CBRS FWA tower stations includes: (i) determining, by theCBRS CPE base station, a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) levelvalue for each reference signal received from the plurality of CBRS FWAtower base stations; and (ii) selecting, by the CBRS CPE base station,the CBRS FWA base station having the strongest RSRP level value as theprimary CBRS FWA tower base station.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 9

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 8,wherein one or more of the CBRS FWA base stations which were notselected as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station are designated bythe CBRS CPE base station as auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.

Computer Readable Medium Embodiment 10

The computer readable medium of computer readable medium embodiment 1,wherein the processor further controls the CBRS CPE base station toprovide broadband services to one or more user equipment devices locatedat a customer premises.

The techniques of various embodiments may be implemented using software,hardware and/or a combination of software and hardware. Variousembodiments are directed to apparatus, e.g., CBSDs, CBRS tower basestations, CBRS CPE base stations, SAS devices, user devices, subscriberdevices, servers, nodes and/or elements. Various embodiments are alsodirected to methods, e.g., method of controlling and/or operating CBSDs,CBRS tower base stations, CBRS CPE base stations, SAS devices, userdevices, subscriber devices, servers, nodes and/or elements. Variousembodiments are also directed to machine, e.g., computer, readablemedium, e.g., ROM, RAM, CDs, hard discs, etc., which include machinereadable instructions for controlling a machine to implement one or moresteps of a method. The computer readable medium is, e.g., non-transitorycomputer readable medium.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in theprocesses and methods disclosed is an example of exemplary approaches.Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific orderor hierarchy of steps in the processes and methods may be rearrangedwhile remaining within the scope of the present disclosure. Theaccompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in asample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order orhierarchy presented. In some embodiments, one or more processors areused to carry out one or more steps of the each of the describedmethods.

In various embodiments each of the steps or elements of a method areimplemented using one or more processors. In some embodiments, each ofelements or steps are implemented using hardware circuitry.

In various embodiments devices, CBSDs, CBRS tower base stations, CBRSCPE base stations, SAS devices, user devices, subscriber devices,servers, nodes and/or elements described herein are implemented usingone or more components to perform the steps corresponding to one or moremethods, for example, ranking, establishing connections, messagereception, signal processing, sending, comparing, determining and/ortransmission steps. Thus, in some embodiments various features areimplemented using components or in some embodiments logic such as forexample logic circuits. Such components may be implemented usingsoftware, hardware or a combination of software and hardware. Many ofthe above described methods or method steps can be implemented usingmachine executable instructions, such as software, included in a machinereadable medium such as a memory device, e.g., RAM, floppy disk, etc. tocontrol a machine, e.g., general purpose computer with or withoutadditional hardware, to implement all or portions of the above describedmethods, e.g., in one or more devices, servers, nodes and/or elements.Accordingly, among other things, various embodiments are directed to amachine-readable medium, e.g., a non-transitory computer readablemedium, including machine executable instructions for causing a machine,e.g., processor and associated hardware, to perform one or more of thesteps of the above-described method(s). Some embodiments are directed toa device, e.g., a controller, including a processor configured toimplement one, multiple or all of the steps of one or more methods ofthe invention.

In some embodiments, the processor or processors, e.g., CPUs, of one ormore devices, e.g., CBSDs, CBRS tower base stations, CBRS CPE basestations, SAS devices, user devices, subscriber devices, servers, nodesand/or elements are configured to perform the steps of the methodsdescribed as being performed by the CBSDs, CBRS tower base stations,CBRS CPE base stations, SAS devices, user devices, subscriber devices,servers, nodes and/or elements. The configuration of the processor maybe achieved by using one or more components, e.g., software components,to control processor configuration and/or by including hardware in theprocessor, e.g., hardware components, to perform the recited stepsand/or control processor configuration. Accordingly, some but not allembodiments are directed to a device, e.g., CBSD, CBRS tower basestation, CBRS CPE base station, SAS device, user device, subscriberdevice, server, node and/or elements, with a processor which includes acomponent corresponding to each of the steps of the various describedmethods performed by the device in which the processor is included. Insome but not all embodiments a device, e.g., CBSD, CBRS tower basestation, CBRS CPE base station, SAS device, user device, subscriberdevice, server, node and/or element, includes a controller correspondingto each of the steps of the various described methods performed by thedevice in which the processor is included. The components may beimplemented using software and/or hardware.

Some embodiments are directed to a computer program product comprising acomputer-readable medium, e.g., a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, comprising code for causing a computer, or multiple computers,to implement various functions, steps, acts and/or operations, e.g. oneor more steps described above. Depending on the embodiment, the computerprogram product can, and sometimes does, include different code for eachstep to be performed. Thus, the computer program product may, andsometimes does, include code for each individual step of a method, e.g.,a method of controlling a CBSD, CBRS tower base station, CBRS CPE basestation, SAS device, user device, subscriber device, server, node and/orelement. The code may be in the form of machine, e.g., computer,executable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium, e.g., anon-transitory computer-readable medium, such as a RAM (Random AccessMemory), ROM (Read Only Memory) or other type of storage device. Inaddition to being directed to a computer program product, someembodiments are directed to a processor configured to implement one ormore of the various functions, steps, acts and/or operations of one ormore methods described above. Accordingly, some embodiments are directedto a processor, e.g., CPU, configured to implement some or all of thesteps of the methods described herein. The processor may be for use in,e.g., a communications device such as a CBSD, CBRS tower base station,CBRS CPE base station, SAS device, user device, subscriber device,server, node and/or element or other device described in the presentapplication. Numerous additional variations on the methods and apparatusof the various embodiments described above will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art in view of the above description. Such variations areto be considered within the scope. Numerous additional embodiments,within the scope of the present invention, will be apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art in view of the above description and theclaims which follow. Such variations are to be considered within thescope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a Citizens Broadband RadioService Customer Premise Equipment (CBRS CPE) base station in a CBRSnetwork, the method comprising: receiving, by the CBRS CPE base station,over the air from each of a plurality of Citizens Broadband RadioService Fixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower base stations a referencesignal; selecting, based on the strength of each of the receivedreference signals, a primary CBRS FWA tower base station from theplurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; establishing, by the CBRS CPEbase station, a wireless communications link connection with the CBRSFWA tower base station selected as the primary CBRS FWA tower basestation, said CBRS CPE base station providing broadband services to oneor more user equipment devices located at a customer premises;reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum forcommunicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations;and prior to reserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, spectrum forcommunicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations,determining, by the CBRS CPE base station, whether an amount of spectrumallocated by the primary CBRS FWA tower base station to the CBRS CPEbase station for device to device communications between the CBRS CPEbase station and the primary CBRS FWA tower base station is sufficientfor providing the broadband services to the one or more user equipmentdevices located at the customer premises; and when said amount ofspectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWA tower base station to theCBRS CPE base station for device to device communications between theCBRS CPE base station and the primary CBRS FWA tower base station is notsufficient for providing the broadband services to the one or more userequipment devices located at the customer premises determining an amountof additional spectrum required for providing the broadband services tothe one or more user equipment devices located at the customer premises.2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting, based on the strength ofeach of the received reference signals a primary CBRS FWA tower basestation from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations includes: (i)determining, by the CBRS CPE base station, a Reference Signal ReceivedPower (RSRP) level value for each reference signal received from theplurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; and (ii) selecting, by theCBRS CPE base station, the CBRS FWA tower base station having thestrongest RSRP level value as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station.3. The method of claim 2, wherein one or more of the plurality of CBRSFWA tower base stations which were not selected as the primary CBRS FWAtower base station are designated by the CBRS CPE base station asauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein at least a first portion of the CBRS CPE base station is locatedwithin a building at the customer premises, said CBRS CPE base stationincluding a second portion, said second portion including an antenna orantenna array mounted at an elevated position at the customers premises,said antenna or antenna array being used to wirelessly communicate withsaid primary CBRS FWA tower base station and said one or more auxiliaryCBRS FWA tower base stations.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: establishing, by the CBRS CPE base station, temporarywireless communications link connections with the one or more auxiliaryCBRS FWA tower base stations; and utilizing said reserved spectrum forproviding said broadband services to the one or more user equipmentdevices located at the customer premises.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the CBRS CPE base station is located at the customer premises,the customer premises having no landline connection over which broadbandservices can be provided.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein one or moreof the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations are simultaneouslyoperated as primary CBRS CPE base stations and auxiliary CBRS CPE basestations with regard to different additional CBRS CPE base stationslocated within their coverage area.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereinsaid determining, by the CBRS CPE base station, whether an amount ofspectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWA tower base station to theCBRS CPE base station for device to device communications between theCBRS CPE base station and the primary CBRS FWA tower base station issufficient for providing the broadband services to the one or more userequipment devices located at the customer premises includes: the CBRSCPE base station measuring a load that is caused by serving the userequipment devices located at the customers premises.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the amount of spectrum reserved, by the CBRS CPE basestation, for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase stations is an amount which equals or exceeds the amount ofadditional spectrum required for providing the broadband services to theone or more user equipment devices located at the customer premises. 10.A method of operating a Citizens Broadband Radio Service CustomerPremise Equipment (CBRS CPE) base station in a CBRS network, the methodcomprising: receiving, by the CBRS CPE base station, over the air fromeach of a plurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed WirelessAccess (CBRS FWA) tower base stations a reference signal; selecting,based on the strength of each of the received reference signals, aprimary CBRS FWA tower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA towerbase stations; establishing, by the CBRS CPE base station, a wirelesscommunications link connection with the CBRS FWA tower base stationselected as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station; reserving, by theCBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum for communicating with oneor more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations; and wherein saidreserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum forcommunicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stationsincludes: requesting what spectrum is available from one or more of theone or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising: determining which of the one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations to reserve available spectrumfrom based on: (i) the amount of spectrum to be reserved, (ii) an amountof spectrum reported as being available at the auxiliary CBRS FWA towerbase station, and (iii) the strength of the reference signal receivedfrom the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station.
 12. A Citizens BroadbandRadio Service Customer Premise Equipment (CBRS CPE) base stationcomprising: memory; a first wireless input/output interface thatcommunicates with a plurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service FixedWireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower base stations; a second wirelessinput/output interface that communicates with user equipment devices;and a processor that controls the CBRS CPE base station to: receive, bythe first wireless input/output interface, over the air from each of aplurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed Wireless Access(CBRS FWA) tower base stations a reference signal; select, based on thestrength of each of the received reference signals, a primary CBRS FWAtower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations;establish, by the CBRS CPE base station, a wireless communications linkconnection with the CBRS FWA tower base station selected as the primaryCBRS FWA tower base station; reserve, by the CBRS CPE base station, anamount of spectrum for communicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base stations; provide broadband services to one or more userequipment devices located at a customer premises; and determine whetheran amount of spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWA tower basestation to the CBRS CPE base station for device to device communicationsbetween the CBRS CPE base station and the primary CBRS FWA tower basestation is sufficient for providing the broadband services to the one ormore user equipment devices located at the customer premises prior toreserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, spectrum for communicating withone or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations; and when said amountof spectrum allocated by the primary CBRS FWA tower base station to theCBRS CPE base station for device to device communications between theCBRS CPE base station and the primary CBRS FWA tower base station is notsufficient for providing the broadband services to the one or more userequipment devices located at the customer premises determining an amountof additional spectrum required for providing the broadband services tothe one or more user equipment devices located at the customer premises.13. The CBRS CPE base station of claim 12, wherein said selection, basedon the strength of each of the received reference signals of the primaryCBRS FWA tower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower basestations includes: (i) determining, by the CBRS CPE base station, aReference Signal Received Power (RSRP) level value for each referencesignal received from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations; and(ii) selecting, by the CBRS CPE base station, the CBRS FWA tower basestation having the strongest RSRP level value as the primary CBRS FWAtower base station.
 14. The CBRS CPE base station of claim 13, whereinone or more of the plurality of CBRS FWA tower base stations which werenot selected as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station are designatedby the CBRS CPE base station as auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.15. The CBRS CPE base station of claim 12, wherein said CBRS CPE basestation includes a first portion and a second portion, said firstportion including said processor and said memory, said first portion ofthe CBRS CPE base station being located within a building at thecustomer premises, said second portion of the CBRS CPE base stationincluding an antenna or antenna array mounted at an elevated position atthe customers premises, said antenna or antenna array being used towirelessly communicate with said primary CBRS FWA tower base station andsaid one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations, said secondportion being coupled to said first portion.
 16. The CBRS CPE basestation of claim 12, wherein said processor further controls the CBRSCPE base station to: establish temporary wireless communications linkconnections with the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations;and utilize said reserved spectrum for providing said broadband servicesto the one or more user equipment devices located at the customerpremises.
 17. A Citizens Broadband Radio Service Customer PremiseEquipment (CBRS CPE) base station comprising: memory; a first wirelessinput/output interface that communicates with a plurality of CitizensBroadband Radio Service Fixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower basestations; a second wireless input/output interface that communicateswith user equipment devices; and a processor that controls the CBRS CPEbase station to: receive, by the first wireless input/output interface,over the air from each of a plurality of Citizens Broadband RadioService Fixed Wireless Access (CBRS FWA) tower base stations a referencesignal; select, based on the strength of each of the received referencesignals, a primary CBRS FWA tower base station from the plurality ofCBRS FWA tower base stations; establish, by the CBRS CPE base station, awireless communications link connection with the CBRS FWA tower basestation selected as the primary CBRS FWA tower base station; reserve, bythe CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum for communicating withone or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations; and wherein said toreserve an amount of spectrum for communicating with one or moreauxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations includes: requesting whatspectrum is available from one or more of the one or more auxiliary CBRSFWA tower base stations.
 18. The CBRS CPE base station of claim 17wherein said processor further controls the CBRS CPE base station to:determine which of the one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower basestations to reserve available spectrum from based on: (i) the amount ofspectrum to be reserved, (ii) an amount of spectrum reported as beingavailable at the auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base station, and (iii) thestrength of the reference signal received from the auxiliary CBRS FWAtower base station.
 19. A non-transitory computer readable mediumincluding a first set of computer executable instructions which whenexecuted by a processor of a Citizens Broadband Radio Service CustomerPremise Equipment (CBRS CPE) base station cause the CBRS CPE basestation to perform the steps of: receiving over the air from each of aplurality of Citizens Broadband Radio Service Fixed Wireless Access(CBRS FWA) tower base stations a reference signal; selecting, based onthe strength of each of the received reference signals, a primary CBRSFWA tower base station from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower basestations; establishing a wireless communications link connection withthe CBRS FWA tower base station selected as the primary CBRS FWA towerbase station; reserving an amount of spectrum for communicating with oneor more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations; and wherein saidreserving, by the CBRS CPE base station, an amount of spectrum forcommunicating with one or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stationsincludes: requesting what spectrum is available from one or more of theone or more auxiliary CBRS FWA tower base stations.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein said stepof selecting, based on the strength of each of the received referencesignals, the primary CBRS FWA tower base station from the plurality ofCBRS FWA tower stations includes: (i) determining, by the CBRS CPE basestation, a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) level value for eachreference signal received from the plurality of CBRS FWA tower basestations; and (ii) selecting, by the CBRS CPE base station, the CBRS FWAtower base station having the strongest RSRP level value as the primaryCBRS FWA tower base station.